Summary: Researchers discovered a way to increase
vitamin B6 levels in cells by inhibiting its degradation, potentially
improving memory and learning. Their study found that a natural
substance, 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone, inhibits the enzyme pyridoxal
phosphatase, enhancing vitamin B6 in nerve cells. This breakthrough
could lead to new treatments for mental disorders and neurodegenerative
diseases.
Key Facts:
- Vitamin B6 is linked to brain metabolism, memory, learning, and mental health.
- Researchers found 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone inhibits the enzyme that degrades vitamin B6.
- This discovery could pave the way for new drug therapies for brain disorders.
Source: University of Würzburg
Vitamin
B6 is important for brain metabolism. Accordingly, in various mental
illnesses, a low vitamin B6 level is associated with impaired memory and
learning abilities, with a depressive mood, and even with genuine
depression. In older people, too little vitamin B6 is linked to memory
loss and dementia.
Although some of these observations
were made decades ago, the exact role of vitamin B6 in mental illness is
still largely unclear. What is clear, however, is that an increased
intake of vitamin B6 alone, for example in the form of dietary
supplements, is insufficient to prevent or treat disorders of brain
function.
has already been described in numerous other scientific papers as a
molecule that can improve learning and memory processes in disease
models for mental disorders. Credit: Neuroscience News
Publication in eLife
A
research team from Würzburg University Medicine has now discovered
another way to increase vitamin B6 levels in cells more effectively:
namely by specifically inhibiting its intracellular degradation. Antje
Gohla, Professor of Biochemical Pharmacology at the Department of
Pharmacology and Toxicology at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
(JMU), is responsible for this.
Other participants come from the
Rudolf Virchow Center for Integrative and Translational Bioimaging at
JMU, the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie-FMP
Berlin and the Institute for Clinical Neurobiology at Würzburg
University Hospital. The team has now published the results of their
investigations in the scientific journal eLife.
Enzyme Blockade Improves Learning Ability
“We
were already able to show in earlier studies that genetically switching
off the vitamin B6-degrading enzyme pyridoxal phosphatase in mice
improves the animals’ spatial learning and memory capacity,” explains
Antje Gohla.
In order to investigate whether such effects can also
be achieved by pharmacological agents, the scientists have now looked
for substances that bind and inhibit pyridoxal phosphatase.
With
success: “In our experiments, we identified a natural substance that can
inhibit pyridoxal phosphatase and thus slow down the degradation of
vitamin B6,” explains the pharmacologist. The working group was actually
able to increase vitamin B6 levels in nerve cells that are involved in
learning and memory processes. The name of this natural substance:
7,8-Dihydroxyflavone.
New Approach for Drug Therapy
7,8-Dihydroxyflavone
has already been described in numerous other scientific papers as a
molecule that can improve learning and memory processes in disease
models for mental disorders. The new knowledge of its effect as an
inhibitor of pyridoxal phosphatase now opens up new explanations for the
effectiveness of this substance.
This could improve the
mechanistic understanding of mental disorders and represent a new drug
approach for the treatment of brain disorders, the scientists write in
their study.
The team also considers it a great success that
7,8-Dihydroxyflavone has been identified as an inhibitor of pyridoxal
phosphatase for the first time – after all, this class of enzymes is
considered to be particularly challenging for drug development.
A Long Way to a Drug
When
will people benefit from this discovery? “It’s too early to say,”
explains Marian Brenner, a first author of the study. However, there is
much to suggest that it could be beneficial to use vitamin B6 in
combination with inhibitors of pyridoxal phosphatase for various mental
disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.
In a next step, Gohla
and her team now want to develop improved substances that inhibit this
enzyme precisely and highly effectively. Such inhibitors could then be
used to specifically test whether increasing cellular vitamin B6 levels
is helpful in mental or neurodegenerative diseases.
About this neuroscience research news
Author: Esther Knemeyer Pereira
Source: University of Würzburg
Contact: Esther Knemeyer Pereira – University of Würzburg
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“7,8-Dihydroxyflavone is a direct inhibitor of human and murine pyridoxal phosphatase” by Antje Gohla et al. eLife
