‘Espresso’ is a concentrated form of coffee that involves pulling hot water through finely-ground coffee beans at a high pressure. Recent studies suggest that moderate and even high coffee consumption may have neuroprotective effects against AD and Parkinson’s disease (PD), the two most common neurodegenerative conditions. Understanding more about how coffee may protect against these conditions could aid the development of new preventative strategies and treatments.
In the current study, researchers sought to see how compounds found in espresso coffee affect tau aggregation in vitro. Tau proteins help stabilize structures in healthy brains. However, in neurodegenerative conditions such as AD and PD, they can clump together into threads or fibrils and accumulate in brain areas responsible for memory, where they impair function.
For the study, the researchers first pulled espresso shots from store-bought beans. They then isolated four compounds: caffeine and trigonelline- both alkaloids, flavonoid genistein, and theobromine, which is also found in chocolate. Next, they incubated the molecules, alongside a complete espresso extract, with a shortened form of tau protein for up to 40 hours.
Ultimately, they found that as concentrations of caffeine, genistein, and the complete espresso extract increased, tau protein fibrils were shorter and did not form larger sheets. This indicates that the samples were able to slow or halt the progress of tau build-ups. They further reported that the complete espresso extract showed the most dramatic results among all of the samples.
The researchers said that further research is needed to verify their findings. They note, however, that their preliminary in vitro findings may nevertheless pave the way towards finding or designing bioactive compounds that could be used to treat or prevent conditions like AD.
Sources: Science Daily, Journal of Agricultura; and Food Chemistry
