Brain, aging and neurodegeneration: Role of zinc ion availability

Different Conformations of Amyloid β Induce Neurotoxicity by Distinct Mechanisms in Human Cortical Neurons

“…One possibility is that the high concentration of metal ions at synapses, particularly Cu ϩ2 and Zn ϩ2 (Frederickson and Bush, 2001;Mocchegiani et al, 2005;Mathie et al, 2006), "attracts" A␤ oligomers, given the high binding affinity of A␤ for Cu ϩ2 and Zn ϩ2 (Bush et al, 1994;Atwood et al, 2000). Then metal-A␤ complexes in the synaptic area may initiate a toxic cascade (Cherny et al, 2001;Frederickson and Bush, 2001), consistent with the synaptic alterations linked to soluble forms of A␤ (Hart- Walsh et al, 2002a).…”

Zinc intake and status in middle-aged and older European subjects: the ZENITH study

“…Among the micronutrients, Zinc (Zn) is essential in the elderly regarding its impact on immune functions (Bogden, 2004), age-related changes on bone mass (Lowe et al, 2002), cognitive functions (Mocchegiani et al, 2005) and oxidative stress (Mocchegiani et al, 2004;Dittmann et al, 2005). Its role in healthy ageing is also particularly important as it prevents neoplastic cell growth and is involved in DNA and RNA repair (Tudor et al, 2005).…”

Selective Intracellular Release of Copper and Zinc Ions from Bis(thiosemicarbazonato) Complexes Reduces Levels of Alzheimer Disease Amyloid-β Peptide

“…Zn II , like Cu, is central to a number of cell signal pathways including modulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor activity (28), expression of metallothioneins (29,30) and activation of MAPK-mediated signal transduction pathways (31). It is apparent that both Cu II (btsc) and Zn II (btsc) uptake could have complex effects on downstream metal-mediated cell signaling.…”