© KURT DRUBBEL/ISTOCKPHOTO.COMMany people threw out their aluminum pots and pans in the 1960s and 1970s, when they heard that researchers had discovered small amounts of the metal in the sticky amyloid plaques that litter the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. While the notion that ingestion of aluminum products might contribute to the disease has since been discredited, evidence is accumulating that metals such as copper, zinc, and iron can play an important role in driving brain degeneration. These biologically active metals have been linked not only to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but also to Parkinson’s, motor neuron disease, and a group of childhood brain disorders called lysosomal storage diseases, among others.
That biometals influence brain health and disease should not be surprising. Ions of copper, zinc, iron, manganese, and cobalt are all key cofactors in a wide range of brain cell functions, including cellular respiration, antioxidant removal of toxic free radicals, and oxygen delivery to brain cells. (See illustration.) These metals are also cofactors for cell signaling at synapses. In fact, it has been estimated that half of all proteins in the body form complexes with metals.
Exciting new therapeutic approaches, involving the delivery of metals to the brain, are now being tested for their ability to restore lost neuronal function.
Given the ubiquity of metals’ presence in the brain, it follows that even small errors in the way biometals are regulated are likely to impact ...
