Quantitation of Brain and Blood Glutathione and Iron in Healthy Age Groups Using Biophysical and In Vivo MR Spectroscopy: Potential Clinical Application

Abstract

The antioxidant glutathione (GSH) and pro-oxidant iron levels play a balancing role in the modulation of oxidative stress (OS). There is a significant depletion of GSH in the left hippocampus (LH) in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with concomitant elevation of iron level. However, the correlation of GSH and iron distribution patterns between the brain and the peripheral system (blood) is not yet known. We measured GSH and magnetic susceptibility (e.g., iron) in the LH region along with GSH in plasma and iron in serum across four age groups consisting of healthy volunteers (age range 18–72 y, n = 70). We report non-variability of the mean GSH in the plasma and LH region across mentioned age groups. The mean iron level in the LH region does not change, but the iron level in the serum in the 51–72 y age group increases non-significantly. Regression analysis of our data indicated that GSH and iron levels (both in blood and in brain) are not related to age. This research pave the way for the identification of a risk/susceptibility biomarker for AD and Parkinson’s disease from the evaluation of GSH (in plasma) and iron (in serum) levels concomitantly.

Oxidative Stress Occurs Prior to Amyloid Aβ Plaque Formation and Tau Phosphorylation in Alzheimer’s Disease: Role of Glutathione and Metal Ions

“…Through literature review and our own laboratory and clinical observations, we suggest that OS is the dominant factor for the pathogenesis of AD. We believe clinical trials should be considered evaluating combinations of drugs directed at OS and brain GSH enrichment with or without iron chelators , on an urgent basis and data should be presented to researchers . We sincerely hope this work will invite constructive discussion and collaboration to support urgently needed clinical trial for the dreaded disease afftecting millions of people worldwide.…”

Multi-branch attention Raman network and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for the classification of neurological disorders

“…Vitamin B deficiency could influence memory function, cognitive impairment and dementia [ 56 ]. In addition, the abnormal changes of the level in zinc [ 58 ], iron [ 59 ] or copper [ 60 ] in neuropsychiatric disorders may also lead to phospholipids and proteins imbalance. Given this premise, SERS spectra of blood serum can provide rich molecular fingerprint information in neuropsychiatric disorders patients.…”

Blood Biomarkers in Alzheimer’s Disease

“…Distribution pattern of GSH and iron level of hippocampus and blood (plasma/serum) in healthy subjects and patients. Part A refers to left hippocampal GSH levels from four age groups of HC subjects, and part B refers to plasma GSH levels in the same study groups . Parts C and D refer to left hippocampal susceptibility and blood (serum) iron levels from the same study groups of healthy subjects (Gr(1), 20–30Y; Gr(2), 31–40Y; Gr(3), 41–50Y; Gr(4), 51–73Y).…”