Green tea extract delivers molecular punch to disrupt formation of neurotoxic species

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Green tea is widely considered to be beneficial for the brain. The antioxidant and detoxifying properties of green tea extracts help fight catastrophic diseases such as Alzheimer’s. However, scientists have never fully understood how they work at the molecular level and how they could be harnessed to find better treatments.

Research from McMaster University is shedding new light on those underlying mechanisms. Preclinical evidence suggests that the green tea compound known as EGCG interferes with the formation of toxic assemblies (oligomers), one of the prime suspects in the early steps of the molecular cascade that leads to cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients.

“At the molecular level, we believe EGCG coats toxic oligomers and changes their ability to grow and interact with healthy cells,” explains Giuseppe Melacini, lead author and a professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology as well as of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster, who has worked on Alzheimer’s-related research for 15 years.

Read more of the original article from MedicalXpress

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