(HealthDay News) -- Chronic exposure to an
artificial butter flavoring ingredient, known as diacetyl, may worsen
the harmful effects of a protein in the brain linked to Alzheimer's
disease, according to a new study.
The findings should serve as a red flag for
factory workers with significant exposure to the food-flavoring
ingredient, researchers from the University of Minnesota said in the
report published in a recent issue of the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.
Diacetyl is used to give a buttery taste and
aroma to common food items such as margarines, snack foods, candy, baked
goods, pet foods and other products.
The investigators pointed out that previous
studies have already linked diacetyl to respiratory and other health
problems among workers at microwave popcorn and food-flavoring plants.
Although diacetyl forms naturally in
fermented beverages, such as beer and wine, its chemical structure is
similar to a substance that makes beta-amyloid proteins clump together
in the brain. This clumping, the study authors noted, is a hallmark of
Alzheimer's disease.
In their study, the researchers found that
diacetyl also increases the amount of beta-amyloid clumping in the
brain. And it worsened the beta-amyloid protein's harmful effects on
nerve cells grown in a lab when the cells were exposed to the same
levels of diacetyl that factory workers might be exposed to in their
jobs.
The study authors pointed out that other
experiments revealed that diacetyl also crosses the "blood-brain
barrier," which helps protect the brain from dangerous substances.
Diacetyl also prevented a beneficial protein from protecting nerve
cells.
"In light of the chronic exposure of industry
workers to diacetyl, this study raises the troubling possibility of
long-term neurological toxicity mediated by diacetyl," Robert Vince and
colleagues concluded in a news release from the American Chemical
Society.
The study was funded by the Center for Drug Design research endowment funds at the University of Minnesota.
While the study found an association between
chronic diacetyl exposure and certain brain protein processes, it did
not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
