Preventive effect of Mucuna beans on Alzheimer's disease

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K00824
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Eating habits
• Research Institution: Kagawa Nutrition University
• Principal Investigator: Fumiko Konishi 女子栄養大学, 栄養学部, 教授 (50170288)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 香西 みどり お茶の水女子大学, 基幹研究院, 教授 (10262354) ; 古庄 律 東京農業大学, 国際食料情報学部, 教授 (50238680)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: タウタンパク質 / リン酸化タウタンパク質 / ムクナ豆

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Our study was conducted to investigate the preventive effect of Mucuna on Alzheimer's disease and prepare new products using Mucuna. Mucuna extracts dose-dependently inhibited amyloid β aggregation as well as tau aggregation in vitro. SAMP8 mice received control diet (control mice) or diet containing Mucuna (Mucuna mice). The number of entries of the Mucuna mice was tended to be higher than that of control mice at 20 weeks in Y-maze test. Avoidance time of the Mucuna mice was longer compared with that of the control mice until 14 weeks in the passive avoidance test. Three xTg mice were fed to determine the levels of sarkosyl-insoluble tau. There were no significant differences in the levels of sarkosyl-insoluble tau in hippocampus between the Mucuna mice and the contol mice. However,in striatum and cerebral cortex, the levels of sarkosyl-insoluble tau were significantly reduced in the Mucuna mice. We prepared Mucuna beans miso and chinese noodles, they had high antioxidant activities.

Free Research Field

調理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまでムクナの機能性に関して、抗酸化能が高いことは知られていた。しかし、アルツハイマー病に対する機能については殆ど知られていなかった。この研究の結果、試験管内でムクナがアミロイドβ、タウタンパク質の凝集を阻害すること、動物実験でタウタンパク質のリン酸化を抑制することが示唆されたことは、ムクナのアルツハイマー病予防に関する機能性の解明に寄与することが考えられる。また、ムクナを用いて抗酸化性の高い味噌と中華麺を開発できたことは、ムクナの普及に寄与するものと期待される。