Dietary therapeutic strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders

Dietary therapeutic strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders Anna Petroni1 , Marco Cappa2 , Carla Bizzarri2 , and Sebastiano Banni3 1 anna.petroni@unimi.it, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, via Balzaretti 9, Milan,Italy; 2marco.cappa@opbg.net, carla.bizzarri@opbg.net, Department of Pediatric Medicine, Endocrinology Unit, Children’s Hospital “Bambino Gesù”, Rome, Italy; 3 banni@unica.it, Department of Experimental Biology, University of Cagliari, Italy. Neurodegenerative disorders can have different etiopathogenesis but they do share metabolic pathways and similar clinical manifestations. In Alzheimer’s disease, leukodystrophies and other disorders, characterized in particular by the chronicity, the occurence of lipid metabolic alteration and secondary inflammatory events can contribute to the progression of the disorders. Lipid and steroid hormone pathways are altered, as an example, in X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD), a demyelinating disorder. Lorenzo's Oil (LO), a mixture of glyceryl trioleate and glyceryl trierucate (erucic acid), is able to normalize lipid metabolic alterations in X-ALD patients although not always the progression of the disease. Our objective was to introduce conjugated linoleic acid isomers (CLA) as therapeutic approach for X-ALD and for other neurodegenerative disorders. We tested a mixture of LO (40 g/day) with CLA (5 g/day) for 2 months, in female heterozygous X−ALD individuals, to determine whether CLA crosses the blood-brain barrier and exerts a synergistic effect with LO. Since secondary inflammatory processes are present in this pathology we evaluated Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs), interleukins, and other standard biochemical and clinical parameters. After the treatment, CLA was detected in the liquor (not erucic acid) indicating the passage through the blood-brain barrier and the mixture decreased abnormal lipid plasma levels. SEPs were improved after the treatment with the mixture, whereas with dietary LO, were found unchanged (Restuccia D et al., 1999). Inflammation is known to be a crucial factor for ALD pathogenesis and other disorders. This concerted action results in an improvement of the SEPs. A better SEP is a sign of neurological improvement which implies an ongoing physiological recovery. Our results are opening the field for a novel promising therapeutic strategy for X-ALD and other neurodegenerative disorders. Sponsor: Biomedicine and Nutrition Association, Italy (www.biomedicinanutrizione.org).