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Caprylic triglyceride as a novel therapeutic approach to effectively improve the performance and attenuate the symptoms due to the motor neuron loss in ALS disease
Author(s) -
Pasinetti Giulio Maria
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.1177.1
Subject(s) - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , motor neuron , triglyceride , spinal cord injury , medicine , spinal cord , ketone bodies , endocrinology , muscle weakness , disease , metabolism , cholesterol , psychiatry
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder causing progressive muscle weakness and ultimately death. ALS patients have impaired energy balance linked to lower activity of mitochondrial electron transport chain enzymes in ALS spinal cord, suggesting that improving mitochondrial function may present a therapeutic approach for ALS. When fed a ketogenic diet, the G93A ALS mouse shows significant increase in serum ketones as well as significantly slower progression of weakness and lower mortality rate. In this study, we treated SOD1‐G93A mice with caprylic triglyceride, a medium chain triglyceride that is metabolized into ketone bodies and can serve as an alternate energy substrate for neuronal metabolism. Treatment with caprylic triglyceride attenuated progression of weakness and protected spinal cord motor neuron loss in the transgenic mice, significantly improving their performance even though there was no significant benefit regarding survival. Our results demonstrate that caprylic triglyceride alleviates ALS‐type motor impairment through restoration of energy metabolism, indicating feasibility of using it as a treatment with a high impact on quality of life of ALS patients.