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. 2014:2014:758323.
doi: 10.1155/2014/758323. Epub 2014 Aug 27.

Aluminium involvement in neurotoxicity

Alessandro Fulgenzi  1 , Daniele Vietti  1 , Maria Elena Ferrero  1
Affiliations

Aluminium involvement in neurotoxicity

Alessandro Fulgenzi et al. Biomed Res Int. 2014.

Abstract

The aetiology of neurodegenerative diseases (ND) seems to involve susceptibility genes and environmental factors. Toxic metals are considered major environmental pollutants. Following our study of a case of multiple sclerosis (MS) improvement due to removal of aluminium (Al) and other toxic metals, we have examined the possible relationship between Al intoxication and ND. We used the slow intravenous treatment with the chelating agent EDTA (calcium disodium ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid) (chelation test) to remove Al and detected it in the urine collected from the patients for 12 hours. Patients affected by MS represented 85.6% of total ND. Al was present in 44.8% of cases comprehensive of ND and healthy patients. Al levels were significantly higher in ND patients than in healthy subjects. We here show that treatment of patients affected by Al burden with ten EDTA chelation therapies (EDTA intravenous administration once a week) was able to significantly reduce Al intoxication.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Scheme of enrolled subject's characteristics.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Aluminium (Al) levels evaluated in the urine samples of examinated subjects, following chelation test (dark) and after ten chelation therapies with EDTA (light), expressed as mean ± SEM of μg/g creatinine. The studied subjects were healthy patients, patients affected by multiple sclerosis (MS), and patients affected by all neurodegenerative diseases (ND). The levels of Al in both MS and ND patients were significantly higher with respect to those obtained in healthy subjects following chelation test (*P/**P < 0.05 versus healthy). After chelation therapies with EDTA, the levels of Al were significantly lower than that obtained following chelation test (# P < 0.05 versus *P and ## P < 0.05 versus **P).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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