Green Tea Extracts Fight against Alzheimer's: Study

Green tea is known for its potential health benefits, right from fighting cancer to protecting against heart diseases. Green tea is popular among health-conscious people because it boosts one's metabolism. One such health benefit it offers is incredible.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered a new way to zap Alzheimer's, which is a type of dementia. To fight this disease, the researchers have turned to green tea, where they have discovered a potential benefit of a molecule in the health drink.  According to them, the extracts of green tea restrict the formation of beta amyloid plaques that are linked to the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. The disease worsens over the passage of time and interferes with a person's daily tasks. Those suffering with Alzheimer's find it difficult to remember names and recent events, leading to poor cognitive skills.

According to the researchers, green tea prevents the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain. The group of these proteins, known as the metal-associated amyloids, is linked with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The researchers used green tea extracts to control the generation of metal-associated amyloid-beta aggregates linked with Alzheimer's disease in the lab.

The formation of the group of proteins was prevented by the molecule present in green tea known as 'epigallocatechin-3 gallate' (EGCG), and this even destroyed the existing structures in proteins that were mostly made of copper iron zinc.

"A lot of people are very excited about this molecule," Sciences Institute faculty member Mi Hee Lim said in a press statement. "We used a multidisciplinary approach. This is the first example of structure-centric, multidisciplinary investigations by three principal investigators with three different areas of expertise."

Next, the team aims to 'tweak' the molecule and test its ability to see whether it can hinder the plaque formation in fruit flies.

The details of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.