HEALTH NEWS

Study Title:

Acetyl-L-Carnitine Protects Against Brain Tangles

Study Abstract

Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) plays a crucial role in memory deficits and tau hyperphosphorylation as seen in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common dementia in the aged population. We reported that ventricular co-injection of wortmannin and GF-109203X (WT/GFX) can induce tau hyperphosophorylation and memory impairment of rats through activation of GSK-3 [Liu et al., J. Neurochem. 87 (2003), 1333]. In the present study, we found that feeding the rats with acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR, 50mg/d•rat, per os) for 2 weeks rescued the WT/GFX-induced spatial memory retention impairment of the rats by antagonizing GSK-3β activation independent of Akt, PKCζ and Erk1/2. We also found that ALCAR arrested microtubule-associated protein tau hyperphosphorylation at multiple AD sites in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, ALCAR enhanced the expression of several memory-associated proteins including c-Fos, synapsin I (SynI) in rat hippocampus. These results suggest that ALCAR could ameliorate WT/GFX-induced spatial memory deficits through inhibition tau hyperphosphorylation and modulation of memory-associated proteins.

Study Information

Jiang X, Tian Q, Wang Y, Zhou XW, Xie JZ, Wang JZ, Zhu LQ.
Acetyl-L-carnitine ameliorates spatial memory deficits induced by inhibition of phosphoinositol-3 kinase and protein kinase C.
J Neurochem
2011 June
Department of Pathophysiology Key Laboratory of Neurological Diseases of Education Ministry of China.