Fatty acids linked to Alzheimer's disease

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- California researchers say they have identified specific fatty acids that may contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

The findings, published in the issue of Nature Neuroscience, identified specific fatty acids that may contribute to the disease as well as a novel therapeutic strategy.

"Several different proteins have been implicated in Alzheimer's disease, but we wanted to know more about the potential involvement of lipids and fatty acids," senior author Dr. Lennart Mucke, director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement.

The scientists used a profiling approach -- lipidomics -- to compare many different fatty acids in the brains of normal mice with those in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

"The most striking change we discovered in the Alzheimer mice was an increase in arachidonic acid and related metabolites in the hippocampus, a memory center that is affected early and severely by Alzheimer's disease," lead author Dr. Rene Sanchez-Mejia said.

The findings have important therapeutic implications because they suggest that inhibition of the enzyme PLA2 activity might help prevent neurological impairments in Alzheimer's disease, the researchers said.