Neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties of a coffee component
 

Just had someone reach out to me who is pushing a new product based on EHT, however I haven't found many compelling research studies, and none on humans. Anyone know anything about this?

Neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties of a coffee component in the MPTP model of Parkinson's disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23296837

A link to the main funder of the study ..

https://www.mesports.me/

It appears that Signum Biosciences is "all in" on EHT, the compound tested in the study.

Observational coffee use studies, which focused on caffeine but of course would have to also include EHT since that is in coffee, really haven't found too much to get excited about.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3056438/

I see that the Michael J Fox Foundation is somehow associated with this company too. According to the site, they funded the development of EHT by this company. Why isn't the Michael J Fox Foundation jumping up and down about EHT?

In short (probably too late for that ;-) ) I would be looking to studies on PD patients and by independent third parties, if available, before I put too much into EHT. There are numerous compounds that show significant symptomatic relief of PD that should be tried first.

Information on EHT
 

I am a member of the Singum Biosciences Team and wanted to share more information on our proprietary coffee extract, EHT®. EHT® (chemical name: Eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide) is a molecule found in coffee, unrelated to caffeine. Numerous epidemiological studies have shown a strong inverse correlation between coffee consumption and AD and PD as well as other chronic diseases of aging, most notably, diabetes. No such epidemiological evidence exists for similar efficacies of other caffeinated drinks such as tea or soda. Therefore the beneficial effects of coffee for neurodegenerative disease cannot be exclusively attributed to caffeine. In fact coffee contains over 1,000 different compounds and the evidence for caffeine’s benefits are, for the most part, indirect. Moreover, in several studies decaffeinated coffee has been shown to provide beneficial effects, albeit not to the extent associated with whole coffee.
The following studies listed which can be found on Pubmed demonstrate how EHT provides cognitive support
1. Therapeutic benefits of a component of coffee in a rat model of Alzheimer’s disease. Basurto-Islas G, Blanchard J, Tung YC, Fernandez JR, Voronkov M, Stock M, Zhang S, Stock JB, Iqbal, K. Neurobiol Aging. 2014. (Epub ahead of print). PMID: 25034344
2. Neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties of a coffee component in the MPTP model of Parkinson’s Disease. Lee KW, Im JY, Woo JM, Grosso H, Kim YS, Cristovao AC, Sonsalla PK, Schuster DS, Jalbut MM, Fernandez JR, Voronkov M, Junn E, Braithwaite SP, Stock JB, Mouradian MM. Neurotherapeutics. 2013. 10(1):143-53. PMID: 23296837
3. Enhanced phosphatase activity attenuates a-synucleinopathy in a mouse model. Lee KW, Chen W, Junn E, Im JY, Grosso H, Sonsalla PK, Feng X, Ray N, Fernandez JR, Chao Y, Masliah E, Voronkov M, Braithwaite SP, Stock JB, Mouradian MM. J Neurosci. 2011. 11:31(19):6963-71. PMID: 21562258

Also included here I a recent paper reviewing the Evidence Surrounding the Relation between Coffee and Cognitive Function
1. jacobspublishers.com/index.php/j-j-food-nutri-1-1-002

In regards to your observation on Signum Biosciences having an association with The Michael J Fox Foundation you are correct. We have received grants from the foundation to conduct research on EHT.

We are more than happy to answer any other questions that you may have on EHT.

Thanks for the reply, Nino, and welcome to NeuroTalk.

I would just note that a study conducted on rats is not really what we'd consider good data for an explanation of how EHT might provide "cognitive support" in humans. While it's some interesting research on which to base future trials, we generally don't use animal studies to draw conclusions or generalizations to humans.

Coffee has good research support -- in humans. EHT does not yet share the same research foundation.

DocJohn

I thought that was what animal studies were about.
The need to use them first instead of us especially those of us desperate for relief or a cure.
I take a drug (not the above one) that has shown promising results in mice and am cautiously optimistic of it helping P.D. and will continue to do so even though it hasn't been peer reviewed in human trials as yet.

Animal studies are conducted to identify potentially helpful compounds that may later be shown to be both (a) safe and (b) effective in humans. It's the very, very beginning of building up the data needed to get us to, "Hey, this is a compound that works for these specific diseases."

Most compounds that show promise in rat studies never show the same positive effects (or effect sizes) in humans, or turn out to be unsafe at the dosing needed. That's just how it goes.

That's why I'm a little astounded when someone provides support for their claims relying on animal studies. That's not support, that's merely showing the compound is under study (like thousands of other compounds also under study). Such studies can say absolutely nothing about whether they'll help someone with "cognitive support" in humans.

DocJohn