{"id":25519,"date":"2019-05-15T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/?p=25519"},"modified":"2019-05-16T13:21:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T19:21:02","slug":"ragweed-compounds-could-protect-nerve-cells-from-alzheimers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/ragweed-compounds-could-protect-nerve-cells-from-alzheimers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ragweed compounds could protect nerve cells from Alzheimer&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-25521\" src=\"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/compuestos-ambrosia-proteger-neuronas-alzheimer-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"130\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/compuestos-ambrosia-proteger-neuronas-alzheimer-2.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/compuestos-ambrosia-proteger-neuronas-alzheimer-2-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/compuestos-ambrosia-proteger-neuronas-alzheimer-2-250x166.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/>As spring arrives in the northern hemisphere, many people are cursing ragweed, a primary culprit in seasonal allergies. But <strong>scientists might have discovered a promising new use for some substances produced by the pesky weed<\/strong>. In ACS&#8217; <em>Journal of Natural Products<\/em>, researchers have <strong>identified and characterized ragweed compounds that could help nerve cells survive in the presence of Alzheimer&#8217;s disease (AD) peptides<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Those with AD, a neurodegenerative disorder, often have impaired judgment, cognition, memory and behavior. <strong>Scientists have linked AD to the accumulation of amyloid-\u03b2 (A\u03b2) peptides in the brain, which form plaques that kill nerve cells<\/strong>. Unfortunately, <strong>the five drugs currently approved for AD treatment only delay disease progression for a short time<\/strong>. When Won Keun Oh and colleagues <strong>screened 300 natural plant extracts for activity against AD<\/strong> in a preliminary study, they <strong>found a surprising candidate: <em>Ambrosia artemisiifolia<\/em> (common ragweed)<\/strong>. This invasive weed, native to North America, has now spread to South America, Asia and much of Europe. Oh and colleagues decided to <strong>isolate and characterize the structures of ragweed compounds responsible for this neuroprotective activity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers <strong>isolated 14 compounds from whole ragweed plants that appeared to protect neurons from A\u03b2-induced toxicity<\/strong>. They determined the structures of the compounds with nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry and other analytical techniques. <strong>Seven of the chemicals, including terpenoids and spermidine conjugates, had been described previously, but the remainder were newly identified terpenoids<\/strong>. When the researchers added the two most active new compounds to a lab dish that contained neurons producing A\u03b2, <strong>about 20 percent more cells survived than without treatment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: <em>Science Daily<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As spring arrives in the northern hemisphere, many people are cursing ragweed, a primary culprit in seasonal allergies. But scientists might have discovered a promising new use for some substances produced by the pesky weed. In ACS&#8217; Journal of Natural Products, researchers have identified and characterized ragweed compounds that could help nerve cells survive in &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-25519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualidad-en-la-salud","tag-casalud","cat-3-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25519"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25522,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25519\/revisions\/25522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salud.carlosslim.org\/english2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}