Plasmalogens and Clinical Symptoms in Parkinson’s Disease by Oral Administration of Ether Phospholipids: A Preliminary Report

[Farooqji]

1 mg/day of oral administration of purified ether phospholipids derived from scallop can increase ether phospholipids in peripheral blood and concomitantly improve some clinical symptoms of PD

hindawi.com/journals/pd/202...

[park_bear]

It would be great to have an important reason to make scallops a regular part of my diet. I am skeptical that 1 mg per day of scallop extract would actually make a difference. My skepticism is increased by finding that they did not include a placebo-controlled arm to their study. Furthermore, the symptoms that improved were all subjective - Emotional well-being, for example. The mobility score did not improve significantly. I might have scallops more often anyway, but not exactly a believer.

[Bolt_Upright in reply to park_bear]

On the other hand, none of their symptoms got worse in 6 months.

[kevowpd in reply to Bolt_Upright]

Which tells us little without a placebo cohort.

[Bolt_Upright]

Great find Farooqji

I think the actual ingredients is important info from the report:

2.1. Ingredient of Capsule

One soft capsule contained 0.28 mg of ethanolamine ether phospholipids (ePE), 0.22 mg of choline ether phospholipid (ePC), 0.08 mg of cholesterol, and 0.07 mg of ceramide aminoethylphosphonate (CAEP). Lipid composition of the capsule and fatty acid composition of each ether phospholipid are listed in Tables ​Tables11 and ​and2.2. It was confirmed by acid (HCl) hydrolysis of the purified ether phospholipids from scallop that 93.2% of ePE is alkenyl acyl phospholipid (plasmalogens), but 95.2% of ePC was alkyl acyl phospholipid.

Which leads us to a lot of big words in the discussion that I don't understand. What I DO understand from this part is if I am going to try this myself I want the EXACT SAME PILLS as they used in the study. They don't really seem to know what part of the supplement was helping:

Physiological mechanisms of the efficacy of such a small amount (1 mg/day) of ether phospholipid to AD and PD are not clear. One hypothesis is that newly administered plasmalogens and/or ether phospholipids may work through some receptors on cell membrane like hormones. Lipid rafts, cholesterol, and SM-rich microdomains on the cell membrane are considered to be associated with cell signaling [30]. There are some reports that lipid rafts are rich in plasmalogens [31]. G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) are also localized to lipid rafts and are activated by plasmalogens [32, 33]. These may indicate the possibility that plasmalogens and/or ether phospholipids work as a ligand of GPCR at the lipid rafts.

On the other hand, there have been many reports that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) relate closely to brain functions [34, 35]. Scallop-derived ether phospholipids used in the present study consist of high amounts of DHA and EPA (Table 2); therefore, it is possible that these omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids of the ether phospholipids may be effective for improvement of some clinical symptoms of PD. Some studies suggest that DHA in the form of phospholipids passes through the blood-brain barrier approximately ten times more efficiently than in the form of free fatty acid [36]. Moreover, it is recently reported that DHA esterified with lysophospholipids is better incorporated into the brain than its nonesterified form [37, 38]. It is also reported that the uridine and DHA containing diet prevented rotenone-induced motor and gastrointestinal dysfunctions in rotenone-induced PD in mice [39].

The capsule used in the present study contains alkyl acyl choline phospholipid (ePC) and CAEP in addition to ethanolamine plasmalogen (ePE) (Table 1). It is possible that alkyl choline phospholipid (ePC) was an effective ingredient rather than ethanolamine plasmalogen (ePE), because alkylphospholipid analogs constitute a family of synthetic antitumor compounds that target cell membrane [40]. Alkylphospholipids are easily inserted into the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane [41]. On the other hand, the capsule contains ceramide. Therefore, it is also probable that CAEP is an effective ingredient of the capsule [42]. Anyway, physiological mechanisms of the efficacy of the purified ether phospholipid derived from scallop remained to be elucidated.

[Bolt_Upright]

Interestingly: Propolis and Royal Jelly are rich in amino acids, fatty acids, and phospholipids

healthunlocked.com/cure-par...