(p. D1) A recent human study that suggested resveratrol could slow the progression of Alzheimer’s used a daily dose equivalent to the amount in about 1,000 bottles of red wine, says Scott Turner, director of the Memory Disorders Program at Georgetown University Medical Center, who led the study. Such high doses can lead to side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Such side effects have caused past efforts to tap the health benefits of resveratrol to founder. GlaxoSmithKline PLC shelved a project to develop a resveratrol-based pill in 2010 after some clinical-trial patients developed kidney problems. The company, which had hoped to develop the drug as a treatment for a type of blood cancer, concluded that while resveratrol didn’t directly cause those problems, its side effects led to dehydration, which could exacerbate underlying kidney issues.
Now, scientists hope to overcome that problem by increasing the potency of resveratrol at more moderate doses. Researchers at the University of New South Wales, near Sydney, suspect the substance is more effective when accompanied by other ingredients found in red wine, which somehow promote its activity. They are developing a pill that combines puri-(p. D4)fied resveratrol with other compounds in wine in an effort to mimic the drink’s naturally-occurring synergies.
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At the University of New South Wales, researchers have combined resveratrol with two other components of red wine: antioxidants and chelating agents, which have separately been shown also to have health benefits.
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The researchers recently tried the combination in a small trial involving 50 people and found it increased the activity of a substance called NAD+ that plays a key role in maintaining healthy cells.
For the full story, see:
DENISE ROLAND. “Scientists Try to Put Red Wine in a Pill.” The Wall Street Journal (Tues., Aug. 2, 2016): D1 & D4.
(Note: ellipses added.)
(Note: the online version of the story has the date Aug. 1, 2016, and has the title “Scientists Get Closer to Harnessing the Health Benefits of Red Wine.”)
A recent article co-authored by Turner, related to the research summarized above, is:
Moussa, Charbel, Michaeline Hebron, Huang Xu, Jaeil Ahn, Robert A. Rissman, Paul S. Aisen, R. Scott Turner, Xu Huang, and R. Scott Turner. “Resveratrol Regulates Neuro-Inflammation and Induces Adaptive Immunity in Alzheimer’s Disease.” Journal of Neuroinflammation 14 (Jan. 3, 2017): 1-10.