Vitamin D may help prevent Alzheimer's

SENDAI, Japan, July 12 (UPI) -- Low levels of vitamin D may be involved in age-related decline in memory and cognition as well as Alzheimer's disease, researchers in Japan say.

Tetsuya Terasaki of Tohoku University in Japan found vitamin D injections improved the removal of amyloid beta -- the buildup of the peptide amyloid beta in the brain is linked to Alzheimer's disease -- from the brain of mice.

"Vitamin D appears [to] increase transport of amyloid beta across the blood brain barrier by regulating protein expression, via the vitamin D receptor and also by regulating cell signaling," Terasaki says.

These findings, published in the journal Fluids and Barriers of the CNS, lead the way toward new therapeutic targets in the search for prevention of Alzheimer's disease.