GUAM AMYOTROPHIC-LATERAL-SCLEROSIS PARKINSONISM DEMENTIA LINKED TO A PLANT EXCITANT NEUROTOXIN
GUAM AMYOTROPHIC-LATERAL-SCLEROSIS PARKINSONISM DEMENTIA LINKED TO A PLANT EXCITANT NEUROTOXIN
复制标题
DOI：
10.1126/science.3603037
复制
发表时间：
1987-07-31
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
ROBERTSON, RC
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
SPENCER, PS;NUNN, PB;ROBERTSON, RC
在西太平洋关岛和罗塔岛的查莫罗人口中，肌萎缩侧索硬化症、帕金森症和阿尔茨海默氏型痴呆的高发病率下降，加上这种疾病中缺乏明显的病毒和可遗传因素，表明与这种文化选择性相关的环境因素正在逐渐消失。其中一个候选者是神经毒性植物苏铁的种子。苏铁是一种传统的食品和药物来源，在二战后查莫罗人的美国化过程中使用得较少。猕猴被喂入了氰氨酸β-N-甲氨基-L-丙氨酸，这是一种在小鼠大脑中具有兴奋毒性活性的低效惊厥剂，N-甲基-D-天冬氨酸受体拮抗剂可以减弱这种作用。这些动物出现皮质神经细胞功能障碍、帕金森病特征和行为异常，大脑皮层和脊髓运动神经元变性和染色变性改变。与现有的流行病学和动物数据相一致，这些发现支持苏铁接触在关岛疾病的病因学中发挥重要作用的假设。
The decline in the high incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, parkinsonism, and Alzheimer-type dementia among the Chamorro population of the western Pacific islands of Guam and Rota, coupled with the absence of demonstrable viral and hereditable factors in this disease, suggests the gradual disappearance of an environmental factor selectively associated with this culture. One candidate is seed of the neurotoxic plant Cycas circinalis L., a traditional source of food and medicine which has been used less with the Americanizations of the Chamorro people after World War II. Macaques [Macacafascicularis] were fed the Cyrasamino acid .beta.-N-methylamino-L-alanine, a low-potency convulsant that has excitotoxic activity in mouse brain, which is attenuated by N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists. These animals developed corticomotoneuronal dysfunction, parkinsonian features, and behavioral anomalies, with chromatolytic and degenerative changes of motor neurons in cerebral cortex and spinal cord. In concert with existing epidemiological and animal data, these findings support the hypothesis that cycad exposure plays an important role in the etiology of the Guam disease.