Understanding the protective effects of wine components and their metabolites in the brain function

They don't seem to have considered that only certain people can process alcohol healthily.

Moderate Drinking is Healthy Only for Some People

http://www.bio-conferences.org/articles/bioconf/abs/2016/02/bioconf-oiv2016_04008/bioconf-oiv2016_04008.html

¹ Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Alimentación (CIAL), CSIC-UAM. Nicolás Cabrera, 9, 28049 Madrid, Spain
² Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy, University of Reading, Whiteknights Campus RG6 6AP, Reading, UK

^a e-mail: victoria.moreno@csic.es

Abstract

Moderate wine consumption has been suggested to exert a positive effect in prevention of neurodegenerative process and cognitive impairment. With the ultimate aim of achieving a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind this benefit, we have investigated the role of certain wine- derived phenolic metabolites and aroma compounds in the MAPK cascade (including ERK1/2, p38), one of the routes directly related to inflammation in neuronal cells. Some of the tested phenolic compounds, especially in the case of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, showed a significant neuroprotective effect against SIN-1-induced neuronal death. Regarding their effect over MAPK phosphorylation, inmunoblotting technique revealed a beneficial and significant decrease on the phosphorylation of p38 and ERK1/2 kinases after incubation with wine constituents. In addition, activity of caspase3-like protease, an executor of neuronal apoptosis and a downstream signal of MAPK, was significantly diminished by 3-(3-hydroxyphenyl) propionic acid and linalool, counterbalancing the increase produced by SIN-1. Altogether, these results suggest that wine aroma, phenolic compounds and their gut metabolites could exert neuroprotective actions by modulating MAPK signalling and caspase-3 proteases activation, which are known to play a key role in oxidative/ nitrosative stress-induced response.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences 2016

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).