Explaining how extra virgin olive oil protects against
Alzheimer’s disease

Credit: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

“Olive-Oil-Derived
Oleocanthal Enhances β-Amyloid Clearance as a Potential
Neuroprotective Mechanism against Alzheimer’s Disease: In
Vitro and in Vivo Studies”
ACS Chemical Neuroscience

The mystery of exactly how consumption of extra virgin
olive oil helps reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
may lie in one component of olive oil that helps shuttle the
abnormal AD proteins out of the brain, scientists are
reporting in a new study. It appears in the journal ACS
Chemical Neuroscience.

Amal Kaddoumi and colleagues note that AD affects about
30 million people worldwide, but the prevalence is lower in
Mediterranean countries. Scientists once attributed it to
the high concentration of healthful monounsaturated fats in
olive oil — consumed in large amounts in the Mediterranean
diet. Newer research suggested that the actual protective
agent might be a substance called oleocanthal, which has
effects that protect nerve cells from the kind of damage
that occurs in AD. Kaddoumi’s team sought evidence on
whether oleocanthal helps decrease the accumulation of beta-amyloid
(Aβ) in the brain, believed to be the culprit in AD.

They describe tracking the effects of oleocanthal in the
brains and cultured brain cells of laboratory mice used as
stand-ins for humans in such research. In both instances,
oleocanthal showed a consistent pattern in which it boosted
production of two proteins and key enzymes believed to be
critical in removing Aβ from the brain. “Extra-virgin olive
oil-derived oleocanthal associated with the consumption of
Mediterranean diet has the potential to reduce the risk of
AD or related neurodegenerative dementias,” the report
concludes.

The authors acknowledge funding from the

National Institute of General Medicine of the
National
Institutes of Health.