Does copper play a detrimental role in onset of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia in the world? Scientists are divided over the answer after the release of a new US study that suspects the buildup of copper in the blood as contributing to Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Rashid Deane, Professor of Medicine at the Center for Neurosurgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center in the United States, concludes in this work that “over time, the cumulative effect of copper affects the system allowing the elimination of the protein from the brain beta-amyloid which is toxic and plays a key role in Alzheimer’s”.
Copper is naturally present in the brain where it contributes to the proper functioning of the brain by protecting neurons from oxidation. But in too high quantity, copper would prove to be a toxic element and would favor the assembly in the form of plaques of the beta-amyloid protein. In the reports of the American National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researcher, who carried out his work on mice and human brain cells, points to the excess of copper, “one of the key environmental factors which causes the accumulation of this protein in the brain, where it forms the characteristic plaques of Alzheimer’s disease”.
Problem, the thesis of Dr. Deane is defeated by a study last February, carried out by the University of Keele, in the United Kingdom. In the journal Nature, the authors state that copper cannot be faulted since the amount of copper in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s is “lower than in normal subjects”. According to Christopher Exley, one of the researchers, copper would rather a protective effect: “Research, including ours, shows that copper prevents the formation of beta-amyloid plaques”, claiming to have carried out this work on 60 human brains of people who died of Alzheimer’s or a similar pathology.
Who is telling the truth? No study allows to decide in the quick. But reading the conclusions of Dr. Deane one can only wonder about the supposed links between the epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease and the use of copper pipes. Dr. Deane’s controversial findings are indeed based on doses of copper similar to those normally ingested by consuming normal tap water. Not very reassuring.
