The researchers from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University have discovered that additional virgin olive oil (EVOO) might assist increase brain power and halt the progress of the consequences of aging on the mind.
The New Investigation
The research was published in the most advanced edition of the journal Aging Cell, and it was named like this, “Extra virgin olive oil enhances the synaptic activity, short‐term plasticity, memory, and neuropathology in a tauopathy form.”
Manufacturing extra virgin Olive Oil in Mola di Bari, Puglia – Image Credit: Sabino Parente / Shutterstock
The investigators have shown that EVOO is a meal that is abundant in antioxidants that can help health issues in more than one way. These antioxidants are especially advantageous for the brain and heart. This new study follows their earlier work that shows that EVOO can support return memory and also shields the brain from deterioration produced by
Alzheimer’s illness. This research was carried out on mice at the time.
In distinct research, also carried on lab mice, shows that EVOO can help another group of dementia-related pathology termed tauopathies.
EVOO Usage
An unusual protein called tau protein can make up within the brain and can lead to dementia and slow the deterioration in cognitive functions, wrote the investigators. This study reveals that the use of EVOO can help prevent a specific degradation of the mental abilities described frontotemporal dementia that is marked with tauopathies.
The team of researchers demonstrated that tauopathies and dementia affect different parts of the brain. Alzheimer’s disease, for example, affects the hippocampus region, which deals with memory. Frontotemporal dementia, on the other hand, changes the frontal lobe and the temporal lobes.
These are now at the forehead and sides of the head, each. Frontotemporal dementia is usually seen between the ages of 40 and 65 years, and there are alterations in character traits, language, handwriting, behaviors, etc. With time, there is a decline in memory and cognitive functions.
Investigation Results
One of the senior investigators, Domenico Praticò, MD, Scott Richards North Star
Foundation Chair for Alzheimer’s Research, Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Microbiology, and Director of the Alzheimer’s Center at Temple, in his report stated, “EVOO has been a part of the human diet for a very long time and has many advantages for health, for reasons that we do not yet completely understand.
The success that EVOO can defend the brain against various forms of dementia enables us to learn more about the tools through which it acts to improve brain health and activity.”
For Alzheimer’s syndrome study, they had used mice created to develop the condition. They fed the mice on EVOO, and when their heads were divided on death, there were no features of brain injury and deposits of the abnormal proteids within their minds. EVOO-fed mice were also found to have reasonable cognitive purposes.
In this new study, they took mice that were genetically engineered (that mice) to develop tauopathy or deposits of the abnormal protein tau in their brains. The tau usually forms tangles and deposits in various parts of the brain. These tangles cause blockage in the neuron communications and thus impair memory and thinking. In humans, this leads to frontotemporal dementia.
Supplements Required
Mice designed to develop tauopathies were then put on a diet of EVOO supplementation from a young age (corresponding to age 30 to 40 years in people). At six months of age (corresponding to aт individual age of 60 years), the mice were found to have a 60% reduction in the tau protein deposits in their brains.
These mice were also observed to have a 60% reduction in the formation of damaging tau deposits in their minds. The synapse functions were better in these mice, and they also had higher levels of a protein called complexin-1. This protein is found to be essential for keeping healthy neural connections or synapses. They examined the mice for memory and learning tests and found that the mice fed on EVOO did well on those tests, as well.
“Our decisions demonstrate that EVOO directly increases synaptic activity, short‐term plasticity, and memory while decreasing tau neuropathology in the hTau mice. These events strengthen the healthy advantages of EVOO and further support the therapeutic potential of this natural product not only for AD but also for primary tauopathies.”
Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University
They wrote that the results “provide strong preclinical evidence in support of the novel idea that EVOO should be viewed as a potential and viable multi‐targeting agent not only for AD but also for primary tauopathies.”
To Sum Up
“As a next step, the team plans on using EVOO in older mice and see if it can change the signs of cognitive decline and reverse the tau knots and films.
We are especially interested in knowing whether EVOO can reverse tau damage and eventually treat tauopathy in older mice.”
Dr. Praticò, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University
