New Japanese research could explain why drinking wine appears to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. Scientists have found compounds that inhibit an enzyme implicated in the disease.Dr Michikatsu Sato, based at a government-funded alcohol R&D centre, has uncovered small peptides present in both red and white wines that inhibit the PEP enzyme, implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease. It is still unknown if these peptides can be extracted from wine and whether they have a preventative effect on the disease in humans. But the research, to be presented next month at the World Nutra conference in San Francisco, offers some hope for the increasing numbers of elderly with memory loss and Alzheimer’s.
