Alzheimer Disease: Reynolds GP

Reynolds GP. · Department of Biomedical Science, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK. · Expert Opin Pharmacother. · Pubmed #11336605 No free full text.

Abstract: The past decade has seen the introduction of several new antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia. These drugs demonstrate substantially lower levels of extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) than the classical antipsychotics, as well as having (often poorly supported) claims of increased efficacy at ameliorating certain schizophrenic syndromes. Increasingly, these 'atypical' drugs are being used in the treatment of psychotic or related behavioural disturbances in patients with neurodegenerative disease. Thus, some newer antipsychotics are particularly valuable in ameliorating the L-dopa-induced psychosis in Parkinson's disease, while behavioural problems in dementing disorders, such as those occurring in Alzheimer's disease, are also frequently treated by antipsychotic drugs. The relationship between drug pharmacology and neurotransmitter pathology is essential to understanding the relative efficacy of individual antipsychotic drugs in treating the psychotic and behavioural disturbances of neurodegenerative disorders.

Sofic E, Sapcanin A, Tahirovic I, Gavrankapetanovic I, Jellinger K, Reynolds GP, Tatschner T, Riederer P. · Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. · J Neural Transm Suppl. · Pubmed #17447414 No free full text.

Abstract: Oxidative stress has been associated with damage and progressive cell death that occurs in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant capacity in postmortem motor cortex (MC), nucleus caudatus (NC), gyrus temporalis (GT) and substantia nigra (SN) from controls (C) and patients with PD and AD. The initial samples consisted of 68 subjects of PD, AD and C. Brains were matched for age, sex and postmortem time. Brain tissue was homogenized in a phosphate buffer pH 7.3 and separated with two-step centrifugation at 15,000rpm for 30 min and 15,000 rpm for 10 min at 4 degrees C. Antioxidant capacity in the supernatants was measured using the oxygen radical absorbance assay (ORAC). The results showed that in the SN of parkinsonian's brain the balance between production of free radicals and the neutralization by a complex antioxidant system is disturbed. No changes in the antioxidant capacity of postmortem MC and NC of parkinsonian's brain in comparison with C were found. In the SN of parkinsonian's brain, antioxidant capacity seems to be lower in comparison with C (p < 0.05). Antioxidant capacity against peroxyl radical showed that MC of AD patients was lower than in the MC of C (p < 0.005). In NC of AD patients the antioxidant capacity against hydroxyl radical was increased in comparison with C (p < 0.04). No changes in the antioxidant capacity were found in brain tissues of AD in comparison with C, when CuSO4 was used as a free radical generator.