Nature dye new hope in Alzheimer's

Lichen dye gives new hope to Alzheimer's patients

11/22/2011

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) and the Charité in Berlin found a new drug that could give new hope to Alzheimer's patients. The red dye of the lichen Roccella tinctoria should, according to scientists poisonous deposits, which are typically present in Alzheimer's Disease, harmless.

According to calculations by the German Alzheimer's Association, the number of people suffering from Alzheimer's has increased significantly in recent decades. This trend will continue over the next few years unless effective therapy is developed. By the year 2050, the number of those affected is said to have doubled.

Natural dye Orcein and the blue dye O4 make deposits harmless
The cause of Alzheimer's disease is misfolding of the body's own proteins, which results in a multi-step process. They form via various precursors the so-called plaques (large harmful deposits), which are toxic according to the scientists for the nerve cells and lead to their death. Dr. Jan Bieschke (MDC), dr. Martin Herbst (Charité) and Prof. Erich Wanker (MDC) found that the red dye orcein and the closely related blue dye O4 can work against it.

The lichen Roccella tinctoria, from which the dye Orcein is obtained, is home to, among others, the Canary Islands and has been used for centuries for food and textile dyeing. Orcein consists of 14 molecules that could have different biological effects. Therefore, the research team searched for a pure substance and found the blue dye O4, which is very similar to a molecule of orcein.

How do the dyes work??
The researchers in Berlin found that orcein and the blue dye O4 reduced the formation of dangerous precursors by the accelerated deposition of large plaques, as shown in the test tube and cell culture. Prof. Wanker from the MDC reports: „This is a new mechanism of action. So far, it has been very difficult to stop the formation of dangerous precursors. If our theory is correct that the precursors of protein plaques are deadly to the nerve cells, we would have a new mechanism to attack with O4.“ Similarly, the artificial dye methylene blue seems to be effective, while other therapies focusing on the breakdown of protein plaques have so far failed.

Further investigations required
Since it is not yet known whether the dye O4 also affects people with Alzheimer's disease, further research is needed. „We hope that our results will stimulate research activity in this direction, especially in drug discovery“, explains Prof. Wanker. Source: Small-molecule conversion of toxic oligomers to nontoxic b-sheet-rich amyloid fibrils Jan Bieschke et al .; Nature Chemical Biology, doi: 10.1038 / nchembio.719; 2011)

Preventing Alzheimer's with natural ingredientsn
Scientist of the „Neurodegeneration Research Lab“ (NRL) of the University of Rostock recently found out that the „Greek (not the German) verbena“ at „improved mental performance and decreased the amount of Alzheimer's peptides by 80 percent,“ explains Jens Pahnke from the NRL.

Physicians at the University of Pittburg found out in another study that going for a walk against Alzheimer's has a preventive effect. According to the scientists, ten kilometers of weekly walking are enough to keep the mental abilities for longer. For those already affected walking would result in a slower progression of the disease. The study author Cyrus Raji reports: „Walking is not a cure for Alzheimer's, but it can strengthen the brain's resistance to disease.“ (Ag)

Picture: Uschi Dreiucker