Forskning

June 6, 2013

Association between caffeine intake and age at onset in Huntington’s disease

C Simonin et al, 2013, Association between caffeine intake and age at onset in Huntington’s disease, Neurobiology of Diseases, Accepted Manuscript available online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT
Habitual consumption of caffeine, a non-selective adenosine receptors (ARs) antagonist, has been suggested to be beneficial in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Experimental evidence support that ARs play a role in Huntington’s disease (HD) raising the hypothesis that caffeine may be a life-style modifier in HD. To determine a possible relationship between caffeine consumption and age at onset (AAO) in HD, we retrospectively assessed caffeine consumption in 80 HD patients using a dietary survey and determined relationship with AAO. Following adjustment for gender, smoking status and CAG repeat length, caffeine consumption greater than 190 mg/day was significantly associated with an earlier AAO. These data support an association between habitual caffeine intake and AAO in HD patients, but further studies are warranted to understand the link between these variables.