Yet another study that will surely earn me even more hate from the vitamin A antagonist crowd:-) Yet, the findings of the study below are quite clear. Namely, retinoic acid receptor (RAR) agonists, of which retinoic acid is the primary endogenous one, may both prevent and treat a number of progressive and often lethal neurological conditions against which there is currently not only no cure, but there is also no effective “symptom management therapy” either. Perhaps the most dreaded example is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is not only invariably lethal within 3-5 years of diagnosis but has seen its rates climb sharply in the last several decades. The study used the so-called “superagonist” of RAR known as ellorarxine, but as the study states all the findings apply equally well to vitamin A, but probably at higher than physiological doses. The mechanism of action of the drug was opined to be related to its ability to decrease systemic inflammation, as ascertained by biomarkers such as interleukins, TNF-a, NF-kB, etc. Interestingly, the patent on the drug (link above) also states that the pharma company developing the drug thinks it would be effective for psychiatric conditions as well, including schizophrenia. Btw, one notable study finding was that despite using a “superagonist” of RAR on mice and rats, the study did not observe any toxicity. So, if a super-potent vitamin A analog did not cause toxicity, maybe vitamin A is not quite the villain some people have presented it to be.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2024.1422294
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-super-vitamin-motor-neuron-disease.html
“…New research from the University of Aberdeen published today in Frontiers in Neuroscience, found, for the first time, that drugs that target the specific receptors necessary to activate vitamin A may be therapeutic for diseases that lead to deterioration of the brain. Specifically, when disease conditions were simulated in the laboratory, the team found that super-activation of the vitamin A signaling system helped protect against the type of damage that can occur in diseases such as MND. Professor Peter McCaffery, Chair in Medical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, who led the study, explains, “We discovered that these drugs bind and turn on the ‘retinoic acid receptor,’ a key protein involved in activation of vitamin A in the body.” Azita Kouchmeshky, neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, and first author, said, “We tested these drugs in a series of studies on neurons grown in a dish. Chemicals were added to the neurons that caused harm similar to the changes that occur in diseases such as MND or ALS. “Usually, these chemicals will cause the neurons to die. However, the application of the drugs that bind to the retinoic acid receptor significantly reduced the number of cells that died off. “The same drugs were also tested in mice and were found to induce changes that suggest they may also be effective in the body.”
