Alzheimer's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alzheimer's Disease, including details on diagnosis, memory loss, heredity, treatment, medication.

Pomegranate juice decreases amyloid load and improves behavior in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Hartman RE, Shah A, Fagan AM, Schwetye KE, Parsadanian M, Schulman RN, Finn MB, Holtzman DM

Department of Psychology, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92354, USA. behavioralneuroscience@gmail.com

Although there are no proven ways to delay onset or slow progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD), studies suggest that diet can affect risk. Pomegranates contain very high levels of antioxidant polyphenolic substances as compared to other fruits and vegetables. Polyphenols have been shown to be neuroprotective in different model systems. We asked whether dietary supplementation with pomegranate juice (PJ) would influence behavior and AD-like pathology in a transgenic mouse model. Transgenic mice (APP(sw)/Tg2576) received either PJ or sugar water control from 6 to 12.5 months of age. PJ-treated mice learned water maze tasks more quickly and swam faster than controls. Mice treated with PJ had significantly less (approximately 50%) accumulation of soluble Abeta42 and amyloid deposition in the hippocampus as compared to control mice. These results suggest that further studies to validate and determine the mechanism of these effects, as well as whether substances in PJ may be useful in AD, should be considered.

Published 19 November 2006 in Neurobiol Dis, 24(3): 506-15.
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