A compound found in abundance in baleen whale meat may help prevent Parkinson’s disease, an incurable brain disorder, according to research by Iwate University and other institutions.
The compound, known as balenine, eased symptoms in mice engineered to model Parkinson’s disease. If the same effects can be confirmed in humans, the findings could open the door to a new treatment.
The study was reported in a European academic journal on April 17.
Balenine’s Brain Benefits
Balenine is found in large amounts in baleen whales, including fin, minke, and sei whales. Previous studies have linked the compound to brain-related benefits, including improved cognitive function.
Researchers therefore saw potential for it to ease Parkinson’s disease, which disrupts signals from the brain to the body and causes symptoms such as tremors, impaired movement, falls, and cognitive decline.
Parkinson’s disease develops as nerve cells that produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain, gradually decline. One suspected driver of the disease is mitochondrial damage—the tiny structures inside cells that generate energy—which can lead to cell death.
To test balenine’s effects, the team used mice in which Parkinson’s disease had been reproduced by impairing mitochondrial function in dopamine-producing nerve cells.
The mice showed abnormal behavior, moving restlessly around their cages. But after receiving daily doses of balenine for 13 weeks, the distance they traveled during these episodes fell by 20% to 30% between the third and eighth weeks.
A Step Toward Human Trials
The researchers also found that, inside dopamine-producing nerve cells, a repair mechanism had been activated: damaged mitochondria were being broken down and rebuilt.
“We have identified part of the mechanism by which balenine acts on nerve cells,” said Taku Ozaki, an associate professor of cellular biochemistry at Iwate University who specializes in neurological disease research. “The effect was striking.”
The findings, however, do not show that eating whale meat will necessarily prevent Parkinson’s disease. The team now plans to examine whether balenine is effective in humans and how the compound can be delivered safely to the brain.
The balenine used in the experiment was extracted from sei whales. Per 100 grams, sei whale meat contains about 27 times more balenine than pork, 250 times more than chicken, and 640 times more than beef. The compound is also heat-resistant and remains stable inside the body, according to the researchers.
Parkinson’s disease is thought to affect roughly one in 100 people aged 65 or older. There is still no cure, and treatment currently centers on therapies that supplement dopamine.
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(Read the article in Japanese.)
Author: Juichiro Ito, The Sankei Shimbun
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