Resveratrol appears to restore blood-brain barrier integrity in Alzheimer's disease

So how much red wine should stroke patients be drinking to maybe solve this cause of the neuronal cascade of death?  Does this also restore blood brain barrier integrity in stroke? Inquiring minds want to know.

Resveratrol appears to restore blood-brain barrier integrity in Alzheimer's disease

Georgetown University Medical Center News

Resveratrol, given to Alzheimer’s patients, appears to restore the integrity of the blood–brain barrier, reducing the ability of harmful immune molecules secreted by immune cells to infiltrate from the body into brain tissues, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center. The reduction in neuronal inflammation slowed the cognitive decline of patients, compared to a matching group of placebo–treated patients with the disorder. The laboratory data provide a more complete picture of results from a clinical trial studying resveratrol in Alzheimer’s disease that was first reported in 2015. The new findings will be presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2016 in Toronto on July 27th. According to the researchers, this study suggests that some of the immune molecules that can cause inflammation in the blood can enter the brain through a leaky blood–brain barrier. “These findings suggest that resveratrol imposes a kind of crowd control at the border of the brain. The agent seems to shut out unwanted immune molecules that can exacerbate brain inflammation and kill neurons,” says neurologist Charbel Moussa, MD, PhD, scientific and clinical research director of the GUMC Translational Neurotherapeutics Program. “These are very exciting findings because it shows that resveratrol engages the brain in a measurable way, and that the immune response to Alzheimer’s disease comes, in part, from outside the brain.” In this new study, Moussa and Turner found that treated patients had a 50 percent reduction in matrix metalloproteinase–9 (MMP–9) levels in the cerebrospinal fluid. MMP–9 is decreased when sirtuin1 (SIRT1) is activated. High levels of MMP–9 cause a breakdown in the blood–brain barrier, allowing proteins and molecules from the body to enter the brain. Normally low MMP–9 levels maintain the barrier, say the researchers.