Vitamin D and docohexaenoic acid (DHA), of the omega-3 type, improve the immune system’s ability toclean amyloid plaques that are deposited in the brainof Alzheimer’s disease patients, according to the latest study by a team of researchers from the University of California (USA).
In his work, which is published in the magazineJournal of Alzheimer Disease, scientists have identified the genes and signal networks regulated by these elements, which in turn control the process of inflammation and the elimination of? -amyloid, the main component of senile plaques that accumulate in people with the disease .
To do this, the scientists isolated the macrophages from a series of blood samples taken from a group of people affected by Alzheimer’s. Macrophages are a type of immune system cells that are responsible for ‘cleaning’ waste products in the brain and other parts of the body.These cells were incubated with? -Amyloid, the plaque-forming compound.. The next day, active forms of both vitamin D3 and DHA were added and their effect on inflammation and? -Amyloid absorption was analyzed.
The results indicated that both compounds improved the ability of macrophages to ‘engulf’ the? -Amyloid, and also inhibited the cell death that this element usually causes. On the other hand,each molecule used different receptors and signaling pathwaysto carry out this task.
However, there are still many steps to be taken in the investigation. Previous studies have identified two distinct groups of patients with the disease. Their macrophages express different inflammatory genes, and therefore the effect of vitamin D and omega-3 on these people could be different depending on the affected group. “You need to carefully balance vitamin D3 and omega-3 supplementation depending on the patient,” explains Milan Fiala, one of the researchers. “But this is a first step in understanding how and in which patients these nutritional substances may work best.”
