role of zinc in ALS
Potential Benefit of Zinc Therapy in ALS Patients
The clinical investigators at the PNA Center for Neurological Research cite multiple lines of scientific research that suggest a potential benefit of zinc therapy for ALS patients, including:
- During the 1950’s, an epidemic of ALS was discovered on the island of Guam and the Trust Territories of the Pacific that revealed a form of ALS that was 100 times more prevalent than in the rest of the world.
- Research on this cluster of ALS cases linked the neurological disease to the neurotoxin BMAA, a non-essential amino acid produced by cyanobacterium and found in large concentrations in food consumed by the people on Guam. Subsequent to the observations of a cluster of ALS cases on Guam, several groups have identified high concentrations of BMAA in the brain tissues of patients from North America and Europe with neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS.
- It has been demonstrated that BMAA binds strongly to transition metal ions such as zinc, copper, and nitrogen. If BMAA crosses into the brain and enters a compartment in which glutamate is bound to zinc, the glutamate/zinc complex separates and the BMAA binds with the zinc, leaving high levels of unbound glutamate. These elevated levels of unbound glutamate are believed to be highly neurotoxic in ALS patients. Zinc is thought to serve as an endogenous antioxidant in the central nervous system and helps protect the blood-brain barrier (BBB) against oxidative stress and may prevent the neurotoxin, BMAA, from crossing into the brain.
- Research on this cluster of ALS cases linked the neurological disease to the neurotoxin BMAA, a non-essential amino acid produced by cyanobacterium and found in large concentrations in food consumed by the people on Guam. Subsequent to the observations of a cluster of ALS cases on Guam, several groups have identified high concentrations of BMAA in the brain tissues of patients from North America and Europe with neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS.
- The use of zinc therapy for ALS patients is further supported in animal models of ALS. Approximately 2% of ALS diagnoses are associated with a mutation in the copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene. In ALS mutant SOD1 animal models, zinc supplementation has been shown to delay death.
- Genetic mutations affecting the ability of a protein known as copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) to properly bind zinc are associated with the familial form of ALS, which shares many of the same features as the more prevalent sporadic form of ALS. .
- Zinc is an important modifier of glutamate toxicity, a neurotransmitter linked to cell death in ALS patients.
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