Green tea component may fight Alzheimer’s: study

By Lisa Richwine

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An ingredient in green tea that
researchers think might fight cancer may also protect the brain
from the memory-destroying Alzheimer’s disease, a study
released on Tuesday said.

Scientists injected mice with an antioxidant from green tea
called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) and said it decreased
production of beta-amyloid, a protein that forms the plaques
that clog the brains of Alzheimer’s victims.

Several months of injections reduced plaque formation by as
much as 54 percent, researchers from the University of South
Florida wrote in the Journal of Neuroscience. The mice had been
genetically programmed to develop an Alzheimer’s-like disease.

Alzheimer’s is a progressive disorder that causes memory
loss and afflicts an estimated 4.5 million people in the United
States and millions more globally.

Drinking ordinary green tea may not lead to the same plaque
reduction seen in the study because other ingredients in the
beverage appear to block EGCG’s benefits, said Dr. Jun Tan, the
study’s senior author and director of the neuroimmunology
laboratory at the Silver Child Development Center in the
University of South Florida’s psychiatry department.

Supplement pills containing EGCG might help, he said.
Scientists are also trying to develop a tea with a high
concentration of EGCG that could offer health benefits.

Other studies have shown EGCG may prevent certain cancers
and could block the spread of the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

Humans would probably need 1,500 to 1,600 milligrams per
day of EGCG to get the amount that helped mice in the
Alzheimer’s study, Tan said.

Researchers have tested the safety of those doses in people
and found no major side effects, he said.

The next step for researchers is to test an oral form of
EGCG in mice and see if it protects the animals’ memory, he
said. “If those studies show clear cognitive benefits, we
believe (human) trials of EGCG to treat Alzheimer’s disease
would be warranted,” Tan said.

The study was funded by the University of South Florida
College of Medicine Faculty Start-Up Funds, the Johnnie B. Byrd
Sr. Alzheimer’s Center & Research Institute, the National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the
Alzheimer’s Association.