[soccertese]

http://www.nature.com/news/common-nu...ld-age-1.13643

[aquario]

Trying to avoid eating natto (ugh!) I found the following foods high in polyamines (the categories they fall under are telling):

Putrescine: Most 'aged' or 'sharp' cheeses are very high in putrescine. Vegetables such as potatoes, canned/frozen vegetables (other than green vegetables) or certain fruit products, such as oranges and tangerines, can have very high concentrations of putrescine. Fermented soy sauce (containing wheat) is also a rich source of polyamines, particularly putrescine. Shrimp, especially the packaged and frozen types have also been shown to have high levels of putrescine.
Spermidine: Mature cheeses, fermented soybeans, fermented tea, Japanese Sake, domestic mushrooms, potatoes and fresh bread are high sources of spermidine.
Spermine: Cereals (other than bread), canned or frozen vegetables, meat products, red meat and poultry are high sources of spermine.

[johnt]

The article [1] referenced by soccertese states:

"Like humans, Drosophila fruitflies become forgetful with age. ... But at least their memory deficits can be reversed by eating a diet rich in polyamines".

Lest, on the basis of this alone, people go off and adopt a high polyamine diet, there is other research to consider.

Taking a wider view, an article [2] states that researchers have found:

"the concentration of polyamines in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with PD (as well as those with multisystem atrophy) was statistically higher in comparison with the control group".

Lewandowski et al. [3] write:

"Polyamines were found to enhance the toxicity of α-synuclein"

"we decided to focus our attention on the observed decrease in SAT1 expression. SAT1 is the rate-limiting enzyme in polyamine catabolism, and a reduction in SAT1 leads to an increase in higher-order polyamines—in particular, spermidine and spermine ... A previous study showed that PD patients have elevated levels of spermidine and spermine in red blood cells ..., which do not themselves produce polyamines."

Tag johnt:alpha-synuclein

References:

[1] http://www.nature.com/news/common-nu...ld-age-1.13643

[2] http://medtube.net/tribune/impaired-...-drug-therapy/

[3] "Polyamine pathway contributes to the pathogenesis of Parkinson disease"
Lewandowski N, et al.
PNAS, 107.39, 2010
http://www.pnas.org/content/107/39/16970.full

John