William Atkins
Monday, 17 November 2008 20:32
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
Australian CSIRO researchers validate that folate is an effective part of a screening process for the detection of Alzheimers disease.
Folate, also called Vitamin M, folic acid, and folacin, is a form of Vitamin B
9. It is readily available in leafy vegetables such as turnip greens, lettuces, and spinach, along with dried beans and peas.
Fortified cereal products, sunflower seeds, and other fruits and vegetables also contain folate. In addition, liver and bakers yeast contain folate. It can also be obtained by dietary folate supplements.
The paper “
Validation of Folate in a Convenient Yeast Assay Suited for Identification of Inhibitors of Alzheimer’s Amyloid-β Aggregation,” authored by Ian Macreadie, Mehrnoush Lotfi-Miri, Sameera Mohotti, Deborah Shapira, Louise Bennett, and Jose Varghese, summarizes their work on their breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research.
The authors are associated with the CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies and P-Health Flagship, Parkville, VIC,
Australia. Their paper appears in
The Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
CSIRO is the abbreviation for Australian’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.
In earlier studies, a lack of folate in the human body had been shown to be an indicator of Alzheimer’s disease.
However, folate in sufficient amounts in the body has previously been shown to help protect against the risks of acquiring AD.
Page two describes Alzheimer's disease and goes into more details on the CSIRO study.
