Effect of the nutritional supplement ALAnerv® on the serum PON1 activity in post-acute stroke patients.
BACKGROUND
Paraoxonase-1 (PON1) is one of the HDL-associated proteins which contributes to the antioxidant properties of these lipoproteins. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the effect of the nutritional supplement ALAnerv® on serum PON1 activity in post-acute stroke patients undergoing rehabilitation.


METHODS
We enrolled 28 post-acute stroke patients and randomly divided them into (-) ALA or (+) ALA study groups. All the patients underwent the same rehabilitation program and received comparable standard medications. Moreover, (+) ALA patients received ALAnerv® for two weeks (2 pills/day). The serum PON1 activity was assessed on blood samples taken at the admission and at the discharge moments, respectively. We used paraoxon (paraoxonase activity, PONA), phenyl acetate (arylesterase activity, ARYLA) and dihydrocoumarin (lactonase activity, LACTA) as substrates, the latter activity being regarded as physiologically relevant. A control group of 14 apparently healthy subjects was also created.


RESULTS
In the (+) ALA group, LACTA significantly increased during the study period (17.6 ± 3.2 vs. 27.6 ± 3.5, p = 0.002). Moreover, the percentage of LACTA variation between (-) ALA and (+) ALA groups during the study was also statistically different (-11.7 ± 6.9% vs. +95.1 ± 29.7%, p < 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
These preliminary results suggest that ALA nerv® could contribute to the improvement of the physiologically relevant LACTA of PON1 in post-acute stroke patients, enabling this enzyme to contribute to the redox correction. Also, this study raises the question about the effect of a longer treatment period over the other enzymatic activities of serum PON1.
Department of Organic Chemistry C. Nenitescu, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Science of Materials, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania. manolescub@yahoo.fr
Bogdan N
BN
Manolescu
Mihai
M
Berteanu
Delia
D
Cintezã
D000368:Aged; D043303:Aryldialkylphosphatase / Q000097:blood*; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction / Q000187:drug effects; D010865:Pilot Projects; D020521:Stroke / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D008063:Thioctic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*
D008063:Thioctic Acid; D043303:Aryldialkylphosphatase; C468406:PON1 protein, human