Green Tea Consumption Reduces Oxidative Stress in Parkinson’s Disease Patients

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a slowly progressive, and neurodegenerative disorder. Several factors, such as aging, genetics, environment, oxidative stress, and inflammation, are involved in PD risk and progression. Among these factors, oxidative stress is critical in initiating and promoting neurodegeneration.

Antioxidants via improving the antioxidant defense system offer a promising approach to protect neuronal cells by removing free radicals, scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) or their precursors, maintaining redox homeostasis, and decreasing oxidative damage. In this paper, the authors hypothesized that green tea consumption (3 cups daily for 3 months) would improve antioxidant status and reduces oxidative damage in Parkinson’s disease based on its antioxidant effect.

Fifteen subjects who were within the first five years of PD, on stable PD medication, and not regular green tea consumers were recruited. Iron status, oxidative stress and PD status were evaluated before and after 3 months of green tea consumption. Hemoglobin, serum iron, iron saturation and ferritin concentrations were used to assess iron status. Antioxidant enzymes including catalase, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were measured to determine antioxidant status. Lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyls were measured as oxidative damage markers. Wilcoxon matched paired t-tests were used to compare the changes in PD rating scales and student t-tests were used to compare the changes in antioxidant enzymes, TBARS, protein carbonyls, and iron status between baseline and post-intervention.

The results showed that there were no changes in total motor scores of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), PDQ-39 total scores and various iron status markers after 3 months. Catalase (p < 0.05) and SOD activities (p < 0.005) were increased significantly indicating an improvement of antioxidant status. Both lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyls decreased by ~52% (p < 0.01) with green tea consumption, indicating less oxidative stress.

In conclusion, this 3-month green tea intervention significantly improved antioxidant status and reduced oxidative damage in early PD patients without affecting their iron status. Based on this pilot study, a future study including a large number of subjects, the use of an EGCG supplement possibly along with a treatment regimen, and an age-matched control group will be useful to clarify the effect of EGCG on the clinical symptoms and progression of PD.

Article by D. Chen, et al, from USA.

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Image by Afnan Khawari, from Flickr-cc.