Today's supplement of interest. L-serine. - Ataxia UK

Ataxia UK

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Today's supplement of interest. L-serine.

First I want to say thank you to the forum member Blueginger for bringing this supplement to my attention. Thank you

Those who are familiar with my posts on HU know that I am a big proponent of supplements as a means to help slow the progression of the genetic forms of Spinocerebellar Ataxia namely SCA1, SCA2, SCA3, SCA6, SCA7, SCA17 and Huntington's Disease. What all these diseases have in common is a protein that mis-folds thereby killing brain cells and then clumps together and kills more brain cells. So the supplements I take all have some scientific evidence showing that they can reach the brain, stop the bad protein from mis-folding, help remove the bad protein from the body, or improve cellular survival in general. Most of the science to support my taking the supplements I take is quite tenuous at best as it is science in petri dishes, flies, or mice. Therefore when I find science in actual human clinical trials I obviously become quite excited.

Today I am writing about one such supplement that actually has some human clinical trial research to support it's use. Here is a general overview:

alzdiscovery.org/cognitive-...

but what is interesting for people with SCAs are the 3 clinical trials and the basis for those trials. Several years back a researcher discovered that a small community in Guam had been getting ALS because of a particular bacteria that caused protein mis-folding, BUT that researcher also found that when folks had high levels of L-serine in their diet they had less chance of getting sick. So in the lab they studied the effect of L-serine on mis-folding and found it stopped the damage. That lead researchers to try in l-serine humans with ALS, and ultimately a few researchers involved in Alzheimers research decided to try L-serine as a treatment for Alzheimers as well since one current theory of Alzheimers is that most damage comes from protein mis-folding just like in genetic SCAs.

Long story long . . . there have now been 3 human clinical trials, 2 for ALS, and one for Alzheimers. Those trials were small and Phase 1 trials simply designed to test for safety. The trials showed that L-serine is safe even at the high dose of 15 g twice daily (about 2 Tbs per day), BUT in one trial some patients with ALS had an 85% reduction in the progression of their symptoms. Which supports the theory from the petri dish work.

Anyways, I intend to add 15 g twice daily until the phase 2 trial results come out and show it is not effective in Alzheimers or better yet the opposite in which case I will continue.

NEVER TRY SOMETHING ON YOUR OWN WITHOUT CONSULTING YOUR DOCTOR.

THIS CAN NOT, I REPEAT, CAN NOT REVERSE DAMAGE. AT BEST IT CAN SLOW PROGRESSION. YOU CAN NOT SEE OR FEEL A SLOWING OF PROGRESSION SO THE CLINICAL TRIALS WILL BE OUR ONLY HOPE OF GETTING SOME SCIENCE TO SUPPORT TAKING THIS SUPPLEMENT.

Here are links to the underlying research:

Phase I clinical trial of safety of L-serine for ALS patients tandfonline.com/doi/full/10...

Studies of Environmental Risk Factors in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and a Phase I Clinical Trial of L-Serine ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/285...

Phase IIa L-serine Trial for eAD (LSPI-2) clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show...

L-Serine: a Naturally-Occurring Amino Acid with Therapeutic Potential ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/289...

The non-protein amino acid BMAA is misincorporated into human proteins in place of L-serine causing protein misfolding and aggregation ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Cheers,

Joe in NY

I have SCA1 but have managed to stop my progression for almost 4 years now. You can click on the following link to read what I am doing that so far has stopped my progression: healthunlocked.com/ataxia-u....

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10 Replies

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Rhiny995 years ago

Thank you for sharing your research. 🙂

M1tz15 years ago

Thank you, Sunvox. I'll see what I can find here in South Africa.

PatsyIpswich5 years ago

very interesting, thank you. I have idiopathic cerebellar ataxia .. my cerebellum has not deteriorated although I haveent had recent MRI. It is my understanding g that it is the inability to cope with effects as one ages that applies to me.

I therefore take whatever supplements help with optimum health. Only by knowing your own body can you tell what supplements you need and when. At 77 years old I dont need many calories so cant enough without supplementing.

february5 years ago

Sear Sunvox, I have ataxia due to Niemann Pick C (NPC) disease. I'm 65 years of age now, and was originally diagnosed with Sporadic Cerebellar Ataxia (unknown cause, progressive) at 49, although I had extremely minor symptoms starting at about 43 years of age. In 2017 I had genetic exome testing, which led to a skin biopsy and then a blood test. I was positive for NPC. It was ultimately determined I not only had a single NPC gene, but an unknown variant as well. It's recessive, which means I got the NPC gene from one of my asymtomatic parents and the unknown variant from the other. Late/adult onset NPC is extremely rare (NPC in itself is rare) and all I have is ataxia symptoms. Anyway, do you think L-Serline would help me? I ask you, as you seem very knowledgeable in your own ataxia (SCA) in the supplements you take...,my best to you...., ;o)