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Mediterranean Diet as a Potential Intervention for Alzheimer's Disease
Middleton, Claire
Middleton, Claire
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2022
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5/19/2022
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is a neurological disease of cognitive decline and memory impairment. AD is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. and is expected to increase as the population ages. A hallmark pathology of AD is amyloid-beta, a protein that aggregates and forms plaques in the brain. Inflammation plays a key role in AD pathology. The presence of amyloid-beta increases pro-inflammatory cytokines, which then induces an inflammatory response in the brain. Diet is known to contribute to inflammation and thus, it is thought that dietary factors may affect AD pathologies. It has been established that a Mediterranean diet (MD), which is a plant-based diet, can have neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects. Conversely, a Western diet (WD), which consists of high levels of saturated animal fats, has an inflammatory effect. In this project, we fed mice one of two diets (MD or WD) for 3 months, collected samples, and measured several different dependent varaibales including body weight and anxiety. As expected, animals gained weight as they aged, however there was no difference in weight between the two diets. Interestingly, both male and female mice consumed more of the MD than the WD. Additionally, we found no differences in any behavioral measure between dietary conditions. While this data is collected at the midway point in a six-month dietary study, it does suggest that there may be a difference in overall metabolic activity between animals in the two dietary groups. Inflammatory and disease markers will be collected at the conclusion of this study and may show additional differences between the two diets. This research is essential, as diet affects the entire human population and is something that can be modified relatively easily without requiring any medical intervention. Ultimately, this research could provide valuable insight into the role of diet in disease progression and thus, could directly benefit society as a whole.
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Biology