A collaborative research group led by Professor Keiichi Ishihara and Professor Satoshi Akiba in the field of pathological biochemistry at Kyoto Pharmaceutical University has found that copper accumulation is involved in the enhancement of oxidative stress in the brain in Down's disease, whose mechanism has been unknown. I found it for the first time.This is a new finding suggesting that quantitative fluctuations in copper may be involved in the pathophysiology of Down's syndrome.It is expected to greatly contribute to the understanding of the pathological mechanism of Down's syndrome and the development of treatment methods in the future.
Down's syndrome is known to be the most common chromosomal abnormality that occurs in about 700 in 1 people.Usually, two chromosomes 2 become three (trisomy), which causes various symptoms such as mental retardation and memory learning disability.It has been suggested that the symptoms of Down's syndrome are associated with an increase in oxidative stress (adverse effect due to oxidative action).In fact, Ishihara et al. Revealed an increase in oxidative stress in the brain of Down's syndrome model mice.However, it was unclear why oxidative stress increased in Down's syndrome.
This time, the collaborative research group discovered that copper is excessively accumulated in the brains of down syndrome model mice using "metallome analysis technology" that can comprehensively analyze the amount of many elements including metal ions.Furthermore, it was found that feeding a copper-reduced diet suppresses the increase in oxidative stress and some abnormal behaviors in the brain.
This result suggests the involvement of copper accumulation in the increase of oxidative stress in Down's syndrome and the symptom of Down's syndrome, and is expected to greatly contribute to the understanding of the pathological mechanism and the development of therapeutic methods in the future.
