Neurosci lett: it's amazing! Mediterranean plant extracts may be effective against a variety of neurodegenerative diseases

Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are two age-related neurodegenerative diseases Their main characteristics are that over time, the brain of patients will accumulate the aggregation of viscous proteins that damage the nervous system of patients, and then affect their motor ability and memory Recently, in a research report published in the international journal neuroscience letters, researchers from institutions such as the University of Malta found that special compounds extracted from Mediterranean plant cactus and brown seaweed can be used as new candidate drugs to help prevent the occurrence of neurodegenerative diseases Researcher Dr Neville Vassallo pointed out that we have been screening Mediterranean plants for a long time, hoping to find special compounds that can interfere with the formation of toxic protein aggregates In this study, we found that special compounds from cacti and brown seaweed can effectively resist the formation of protein aggregates The researchers used this extract compound to test beer yeast carrying β - amyloid protein aggregate With the continuous contact with special compounds, the health of yeast cells has improved significantly, which encouraged the researchers to study the genetically modified Drosophila with Alzheimer's disease The researchers found that conventional treatment based on seaweed extract can prolong the median life span of the diseased flies by 2 days, while cactus extract can prolong the life span of the flies by 4 days; considering that one day of the life span of the flies is equivalent to one year of human life, the researchers later found that the treatment based on extract can significantly improve the movement of diseased flies through in-depth research Mobility (18%) In addition, the researchers also said that the extract can prolong the life span of Drosophila melanogaster when α - synuclein is overloaded in the brain α - synuclein is a toxic protein that causes Parkinson's disease Therefore, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease may have the same mechanism of neurovariability The researchers believe that the compound extracted from Mediterranean plants can interfere with β - Dian The formation of farinogen and α - synuclein blocks the damage of these toxic proteins to brain neurons In the end, Ruben J Cauchi, the researcher, said that the bioactive agents that can target the molecular pathways behind various neurodegenerative diseases may help scientists develop new therapies to resist brain neurological disorders Of course, later researchers need to carry out a number of safety experiments and deeper research to promote the current research.