Extra virgin olive oil, a key component of the Mediterranean diet, may protect the brain from the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, rodent experiments conducted by a team of researchers from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine have revealed. from Temple University (USA) and published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.
Alzheimer’s disease is progressive and cannot yet be cured or reversed. However, this research brings us closer to a preventive – and potentially inverse – strategy, after examining the effects of extra virgin olive oil on the cognitive performance and brain health of mice.
The scientists used a traditional Alzheimer’s transgenic mouse model to study the effect of the oil. Thus, the rodents were genetically modified to present the three main characteristics of the disease: memory impairment, accumulation of amyloid plaques (excess production and accumulation of beta-amyloid) and neurofibrillary tangles (twisted threads of a protein called tau, the protein becomes entangled in neurons; nutrients do not arrive and they die).
They divided the rodents into two groups: the first received a grain diet with extra virgin olive oil and the second a regular pelleted diet with no added oil.
The researchers assessed the mice’s cognitive abilities using tests on their spatial memory, working memory, and learning abilities. They also analyzed brain tissue.
At 9 months and 12 months of age, mice that had been fed extra virgin olive oil performed significantly better on cognitive tests than those in the control group.
Regarding the brain tissue of rodents, the scientists observed striking differences in the appearance and function of nerve cells in those who took extra virgin olive oil. For starters, the integrity of synapses was preserved much better, and brain tissue revealed a “dramatic increase” in the activation of nerve cell autophagy (the process in which nerve cells remove toxic waste), in mice. fed with olive oil.
In turn, this increased autophagy led to a decrease in amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau.
“This is an exciting finding for us, thanks to the activation of autophagy, memory and synaptic integrity have been preserved, and the pathological effects in animals destined to develop Alzheimer’s disease were significantly reduced. This is a very discovery. important, since we suspect that a reduction in autophagy marks the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease “, comments Domenico Praticò, leader of the study.
Referencia: Elisabetta Lauretti, Luigi Iuliano, Domenico Pratic. Extra-virgin olive oil ameliorates cognition and neuropathology of the 3xTg mice: role of autophagy. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 2017; DOI: 10.1002/acn3.431
