Rotten Egg Gas Could Guard Against Alzheimer's Disease

A study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences suggests foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas may help shield aging brain cells from Alzheimer's disease, reports ScienceDaily . Sulfhydration levels in the brain have been found to decline with age, a process exacerbated in persons with Alzheimer's disease. Johns Hopkins Medicine investigators studied mice genetically engineered to emulate human Alzheimer's disease, which they injected with a hydrogen sulfide-carrying compound called NaGYY, The compound gradually releases the passenger hydrogen sulfide molecules as it passes through the body. Over 12 weeks, the mice's cognitive and motor function improved by 50 percent compared with counterparts that were not administered NaGYY injections. Mice that got NaGYY also could recall the locations of platform exits better and appeared more physically active than the untreated specimens. Healthy levels of hydrogen sulfide were found to induce a change in the enzyme glycogen synthase ß (GSK3ß); the gas's absence caused GSK3ß to be excessively drawn to tau protein, which forms clumps in the brain that lead to cognitive deterioration characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. "Understanding the cascade of events is important to designing therapies that can block this interaction like hydrogen sulfide is able to do," said John Hopkins Medicine's Daniel Giovinazzo.