CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—A combination of nutraceutical ingredients may stimulate the growth of brain synapses, possibly improving memory in Alzheimer’s patients by stimulating new brain connections, researchers reported in Alzheimer’s & Dementia (January 2010;6(1):1-10.e1). In the randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial, led by Philip Scheltens, director of the Alzheimer Center at Vrije Universiteit Medical Center in Amsterdam, Alzheimer’s patients (n=225) received placebo or a medical food containing uridine, choline, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), B vitamins, phospholipids and antioxidants (as Souvenaid, from Danone) for 12 weeks. Subjects on the active intervention showed improved memory (delayed verbal recall), possibly by supporting growth of the connective synapses.
“If you can increase the number of synapses by enhancing their production, you might to some extent avoid that loss of cognitive ability,” said Richard Wurtman, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) investigator who did the basic research that led to the treatment. Wurtman has shown in animal studies that uridine, choline and DHA boost the number of dendritic spines, which form synapses when they contact another neuron.
Three additional clinical studies in Alzheimer’s patients are now underway, one in the United States and two in Europe. Results are expected to be available between 2011 and 2013.
Wurtman and MIT have patented the mixture of nutrients used in the study, and Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, a unit of Danone, holds the exclusive license on the patent.
Wurtman believes his approach to Alzheimer’s may eventually prove beneficial in treating other diseases. If these nutrients prove to be successful in Alzheimer’s patients, “then you can think about other diseases in which there are too few synapses,” such as Parkinson’s disease, he said. “There are a lot of diseases associated with synapse deficiency.”
