Huntington's disease is an incurable, hereditary disease prevailing in 1 of every 15,000 people.

Together with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, Huntington's disease belongs to a family of neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding, characterized by jerky, uncontrolled movements, an unsteady gait and grimaces leading to its original common name of Huntington's chorea (from the ancient Greek for "dance").

The health benefits of green tea has been linked to lower risk of certain cancers, increased weight loss and protection against Alzheimer's.

Now, Huntington's disease is the new addition to that list of green tea beneficiaries. German scientists have recently reported that the green tea extract, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), may slow the accumulation of proteins that cause Huntington's disease.

The said study, headed by Professor Erich Wanker from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine Berlin-Buch (MDC), investigated the effect of EGCG on the aggregation of mutant huntingtin proteins in vitro, and found that the green tea extract could interfere with the very early events of this process.

"We demonstrate that the green tea polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) potently inhibits the aggregation of mutant huntingtin protein in a dose-dependent manner," wrote lead author Dagmar Ehrnhoefer.

"These results indicate that modulators of huntingtin misfolding ... like EGCG are likely to reduce polyglutamine -mediated toxicity in vivo," concluded Ehrnhoefer.

I haven't yet warmed up to green tea. I don't hate it but green tea is not something I can drink more than twice a day, I'm still loyal to the black tea I used to know. But then medically speaking, I might just change my mind:

Green tea is said to contain over four times the concentration of antioxidant catechins than black tea (green tea leaves that have been oxidized by fermentation), about 70 mg catechins per 100 mL compared to 15 mg per 100 mL for black tea.

More research are still needed though on the green tea- Huntington disease association, particularly to determine whether the bioactive doses needed to produce such protective effects can really be obtained from drinking green tea or by taking supplements.

With new researches coming out on the heath benefits of green tea, consumer awareness and the market for green tea and green tea extracts continues to rise.

This research study is published in the September issue of the journal Human Molecular Genetics (Vol. 15, pp. 2743-2751), and has been presented by Dagmar Ehrnhoefer at the recent international conference "Neurodegenerative diseases: molecular mechanisms in a functional genomic frameworks"; in Berlin.

Source: NutraIngredients

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