According to Harvard and MIT researchers, we are slowly closing in on diseases such as Alzheimer’s with some cutting edge research on the SIRT1 gene, which is activated by the naturally occurring compound, resveratrol. Using resveratrol extracted from red wine, researchers have shown that it extends life-span, and now they are finding evidence of its neuroprotective abilities in mice. The mice that received resveratrol also showed a reduced death rate and a measured increase in neuronal restoration.
If the research by to Harvard and MIT teams have anything to go by, then the implications that resveratrol has on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease are potentially huge.
However there is still some challenges regarding the effects of resveratrol on the brain and that is its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. The mice in this study actually had resveratrol injected directly into their brain. Although this is still a hurdle to overcome by researchers, it still wont diminish the other positive effects that resveratrol has been seen to have in the labratory.
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