HEAVY METAL BINDING AND beta-AMYLOID AGGREGATION INHIBITION PROPERTIES OF BLACK SESAME PIGMENT: TOWARD A NOVEL ANTI-ALZHEIMER AGENT

We recently developed an improved purification procedure to obtain black sesame pigment (BSP), involving fat removal from black sesame seeds followed by an optimized hydrolytic protocol. BSP thus obtained displayed good antioxidant efficiency in several chemical assays.1 We report herein the heavy metal binding and the inhibition properties of BSP following simulated gastrointestinal digestion toward several enzymes implicated in the Alzheimer’s disease, as evaluated by chemical assays,. BSP at 0.05 mg/mL efficiently removed lead, cadmium and mercury at 15 microM at pH 7.0 (>65% removal for cadmium and >90% for mercury and lead).2 More than 80% inhibition of the acetylcholinesterase–induced Ab1-40 aggregation was observed in the presence of the bioaccesible (soluble) fraction from the simulated digestion of BSP, which also efficiently inhibited self-induced Ab1-42 aggregation and b-secretase activity even after extensive dilution. These properties open new perspectives toward the use of BSP as a food supplement for the prevention of neurodegenerative and oxidative stress based diseases. 1)