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Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder and the leading cause of dementia, but therapeutic treatment options are limited. Taurine has been reported to have neuroprotective properties against dementia, including AD. The present study aimed to investigate the treatment effect of taurine in AD mice by functional molecular imaging. To elucidate glutamate alterations by taurine, taurine was administered to 5xFAD transgenic mice from 2 months of age, known to apear amyloid deposition. Then, we performed glutamate positron emission tomography (PET) imaging studies for three groups (wild-type, AD, and taurine-treated AD, n = 5 in each group). As a result, brain uptake in the taurine-treated AD group was 31-40% higher than that in the AD group (cortex: 40%, p < 0.05; striatum: 32%, p < 0.01; hippocampus: 36%, p < 0.01; thalamus: 31%, p > 0.05) and 3-14% lower than that in the WT group (cortex: 10%, p > 0.05; striatum: 15%, p > 0.05; hippocampus: 14%, p > 0.05; thalamus: 3%, p > 0.05). However, we did not observe differences in Aβ pathology between the taurine-treated AD and AD groups in immunohistochemistry experiments. Our results reveal that although taurine treatment did not completely recover the glutamate system, it significantly increased metabolic glutamate receptor type 5 brain uptake. Therefore, taurine has therapeutic potential against AD.

정상군, 알츠하이머 치매군, 알츠하이머 치매군+타우린 투여군에서 글루타메이트에 결합하는 방사성의약품을 알츠하이머병 쥐에 주사한 후 양전자방출단층촬영술(PET)을 시행한 결과, 타우린을 투여한 치매 쥐는 글루타메이트의 방사성의약품 흡수가 투여하지 않은 쥐보다 31∼40% 높았고, 정상쥐보다는 3∼14% 낮아지는 것을 확인하였습니다

Affiliations

Se Jong Oh  1 , Hae-June Lee  2 , Ye Ji Jeong  2 , Kyung Rok Nam  1 , Kyung Jun Kang  1 , Sang Jin Han  1 , Kyo Chul Lee  1 , Yong Jin Lee  1 , Jae Yong Choi  3
1 Division of Applied RI, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, 75 Nowon-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul, 01812, Korea.
2 Division of Radiation Effects, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul, Korea.
3 Division of Applied RI, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, 75 Nowon-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul, 01812, Korea. smhany@kirams.re.kr.