Nature: listen to the doctor and eat less salt! To reveal that high salt diet impairs brain cognitive function by promoting protein tau phosphorylation

October 27, 2019 / Biovalley BIOON / - -- in a new study on mice, researchers from the Medical College of will Cornell in the United States found that high salt diet may lead to the lack of compound nitric oxide, which has a negative impact on cognitive function When the level of nitric oxide is too low, tau protein in brain phosphorylates, which leads to dementia The relevant research results were published online in the nature Journal on October 23, 2019, and the title of the paper is "diversity salt promotions coherent improvement through tau photolithography" Picture from nature, 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1688-z In the new study, the researchers tried to understand a series of relationships between salt intake and poor cognitive function, and concluded that reducing salt intake and maintaining healthy blood vessels in the brain might "avoid" dementia Protein tau deposits are related to the production of human Alzheimer's disease Dr Giuseppe faraco, the first author of the paper and assistant professor of neuroscience research at the fair Family Institute of brain and thinking, will Cornell School of medicine, said, "our study proposes a new mechanism of salt mediated cognitive impairment, and also provides further evidence that there is a correlation between eating habits and cognitive function." The new study is based on a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience last year by Dr faraco and Dr Costantino iadecola, director of the fair family brain and thinking Institute and professor of neuroscience The 2018 study found that high salt diet can cause dementia in mice (Nature Neuroscience, 2018, DOI: 10.1038 / s41593-017-0059-z) The rodent became unable to perform daily tasks such as nesting, and had problems passing memory tests They determined that a high salt diet causes cells in the small intestine to release IL-17 molecules that promote inflammation IL-17 then enters the bloodstream, blocking the production of nitric oxide by cells in the blood vessel wall that supply nutrients to the brain The function of this compound is to relax and expand blood vessels and let blood flow In contrast, a lack of nitric oxide limits blood flow Based on these findings, Dr iadecola, Dr faraco and their colleagues speculate that salt may cause dementia in mice because it restricts blood flow to the brain and starves it However, as they continued their research, they realized that the blood flow restriction in mice was not serious enough to prevent the normal operation of the brain "We think something else might happen here," Dr iadecola said In this new study, the researchers found that reduced nitric oxide production in blood vessels affects the stability of tau protein in neurons Tau provides structure for the scaffold of neurons This scaffold, also known as cytoskeleton, helps transport substances and nutrients between neurons to support their function and health "The protein tau becomes unstable and falling off the cytoskeleton can cause trouble," Dr iadecola said He added that tau should not move freely within cells Once tau breaks away from the cytoskeleton, the protein accumulates in the brain, causing cognitive problems The researchers determined that healthy nitric oxide levels control tau "It inhibits the activity of a series of enzymes that cause tau protein lesions," he said To further explore the importance of protein tau in dementia, the researchers gave mice on a high salt diet with limited blood flow to the brain an antibody that promotes the stability of protein tau Despite limited blood flow, they still observed normal cognition in these mice "This suggests that the real cause of dementia is protein tau rather than lack of blood flow," Dr iadecola said Overall, the new study highlights the importance of vascular health to the brain "As we have shown, there is more than one way for blood vessels to keep the brain healthy," Dr iadecola said Dr iadecola said that although salt intake and cognitive ability need to be studied in the human body, the new study for mice reminds people to control salt intake "What's harmful to us doesn't come from salt bottles, but from processed food and restaurant food," he said We must control our salt intake It changes blood vessels in the brain and does so in a harmful way " (BIOON Com) reference: 1.giuseppe faraco et al Dietary salt promotions coherent improvement through tau photosynthesis Nature, 2019, doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1688-z 2.High-salt Diet Promotes Cognitive Impairment Through the Alzheimer-Linked Protein Tau https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2019/10/high-salt-diet-promotes-cognitive-impairment-through-the-alzheimer-linked-protein-tau