BOSTON, April 27 (UPI) -- U.S. brain researchers have developed a "cocktail" of dietary supplements, now in human clinical trials, that is a promising treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology team suggests that a cocktail treatment of omega-3 fatty acids, uridine and choline -- normally present in the blood -- could delay the cognitive decline seen in Alzheimer's disease.
"It's been enormously frustrating to have so little to offer people that have (Alzheimer's) disease," said study leader Richard Wurtman.
The researchers saw that after the supplements were added to the diets of gerbils they observed a dramatic increase in the amount of membranes that form brain-cell synapses, where messages between cells are relayed. Damage in brain synapses is believed to cause the dementia that characterizes Alzheimer's disease.
If the results can be duplicated in the ongoing human trials, the new treatment could offer perhaps not a cure but a long-term Alzheimer's treatment similar to what L-dopa, a dopamine precursor, does for Parkinson's patients, said Wurtman, a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
Wurtman will present the finding at the International Academy of Nutrition and Aging 2006 Symposium on Nutrition and Alzheimer's Disease/Cognitive Decline in Chicago Tuesday.
