Copper, iron and zinc in Alzheimer's disease senile plaques

There are a number of ways in which a clinical diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer type can be made – the application of clinical criteria is the commonest but ancillary techniques such as neuroima

Clinical Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

Trace elements in human physiology and pathology: zinc and metallothioneins.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses separate pools of CNS zinc, which are, vesicular zinc, free zinc, and protein-bound zinc Vesicular zinc is the one which is sequestered in the presynaptic vesicles of a special class of neurons, the zinc-containing neurons, which are found primarily in limbic, cerebrocortical, and corticofugal systems This vesicular zinc can be selectively stained by several histochemical procedures and is, therefore, accessible to histological and histoanalytical studies The second pool, free zinc, is an entirely hypothetical pool of ionic Zn +2 in the cytosol or interstitial fluid that may or may not be present in normal, healthy brain tissue The third pool of zinc is that which is bound firmly into the structure of the many zinc-containing enzymes in the brain The enzymatic zinc is, therefore, a stable pool, involved only in the specific function of the zinc-containing enzymes Zinc metalloenzymes are essential to the normal biology of brain cells, and any experimental treatment that is extreme enough to affect the metalloenzymes, such as prolonged zinc undernutrition or administration of chelators, can disrupt brain function through metalloenzymatic effects

Neurobiology of zinc and zinc-containing neurons.

Food systems need to produce enough of the essential trace element Se to provide regular adult intakes of at least 40 microg/d to support the maximal expression of the Se enzymes, and perhaps as much as 300 microg/d to reduce risks of cancer. Deprivation of Se is associated with impairments in antioxidant protection, redox regulation and energy production as consequences of suboptimal expression of one or more of the Se-containing enzymes. These impairments may not cause deficiency signs in the classical sense, but instead contribute to health problems caused by physiological and environmental oxidative stresses and infections. At the same time, supranutritional intakes of Se, i.e. intakes greater than those required for selenocysteine enzyme expression, appear to reduce cancer risk. The lower, nutritional, level is greater than the typical intakes of many people in several parts of the world, and few populations have intakes approaching the latter, supranutritional, level. Accordingly, low Se status is likely to contribute to morbidity and mortality due to infectious as well as chronic diseases, and increasing Se intakes in all parts of the world can be expected to reduce cancer rates.

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Selenium in global food systems.

Heavy metal removal from motorway stormwater using zeolites

Multielement contamination of British motorway environments

Univ Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Unidade Diferenciada Sorocaba Ipero, BR-18087180 Sorocaba, SP, Brazil

Recent biological and environmental applications of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)

The use of inductively coupled plasma source mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for multi-element analysis has led to the observation, in two separate studies, of increased blood tin in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have therefore applied the technique of ICP-MS to hippocampal tissues obtained post-mortem from patients with AD and from controls. There was no significant difference in tin concentrations in AD. There were increased concentrations of aluminum and silicon, and reduced concentrations of zinc and selenium. It is postulated that displacement of hippocampal zinc by heavy metals may be important in producing clinical memory disturbance. However, analysis of the CA1 region, rather than of the dentate gyrus, would have been preferable.

Hippocampal tin, aluminum and zinc in Alzheimer's disease

Brain tissue (hippocampus and cerebral cortex) from Alzheimer's disease and control individuals sampled from Eastern Canada and the United Kingdom were analyzed for Ag, Al, As, B, Br, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Hg, I, K, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Rb, S, Sb, Sc, Se, Si, Sn, Sr, Ti, V and Zn. Neutron activation analysis (thermal and prompt gamma-ray) methods were used. Highly significant differences (probability less than 0.005) for both study areas were shown between Alzheimer's diesease (AD) and control (C) individuals: AD>C for Al, Br, Ca and S, and AD<C for Se, V and Zn. Aluminium content of brain tissue ranged from 3.605 to 21.738 μg/g d.w. (AD) and 0.379 to 4.768, μg/g d.w. (C). No statistical evidence of aluminium accumulation with age was noted. Possible zinc deficiency (specially for hippocampol tissue), was observed with zinc ranges of 31.42 to 57.91 μg/g d.w. (AD) and 37.31 to 87.10 μg/g d.w. (C), for Alzheimer's disease patients.

Neil I. Ward

Papers

Heavy metal removal from motorway stormwater using zeolites

Multielement contamination of British motorway environments

Recent biological and environmental applications of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)

Hippocampal tin, aluminum and zinc in Alzheimer's disease

Neutron activation analysis techniques for identifying elemental status in Alzheimer's disease