Espresso coffee mitigates the aggregation of Alzheimer′s associated tau protein

[thucydides]

But see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30322179/, a large meta-analysis that found no association between coffee drinking and Alzheimer's disease:

We performed a dose-response meta-analysis to summarize the prospective data on coffee consumption and associated risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. These studies included 7486 dementia cases diagnosed among 328,885 individuals during an average follow-up of 4.9⁻25 years. Meta-analysis of all eight studies indicated no statistically significant association between coffee consumption and the risk of dementia and no deviations from a linear trend (p = 0.08). The relative risk of dementia per 1 cup/day increment of coffee consumption was 1.01 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.98⁻1.05; p = 0.37). Meta-analysis of five studies that focused on Alzheimer's disease revealed no association between coffee consumption and Alzheimer's disease and no deviations from a linear trend (p = 0.79). The relative risk of Alzheimer's disease per 1 cup/day increment of coffee consumption was 1.01 (95% confidence interval 0.95⁻1.07; p = 0.80). These results do not support an association between coffee consumption and an increased risk of overall dementia or Alzheimer's disease specifically, but further research on the association of coffee consumption with dementia risk is needed.

[barbazoo]

One talks about "espresso coffee" the other one just says "coffee", could that be significant?

[befeltingu]

In these large trials I assume they are not trying to separate someone who just drinks black coffee from someone who drinks coffee with a lot of sugar (mochas ect…). So the negative affects of daily consumption of sugar and dairy could offset whatever positive affects might have been possible.

[fatfingerd]

Studies on AD and Coffee seem to be all over the place because they are just correlative. People with a genetic disposition to drink coffee (I kid you not) have higher prevalence of AD, people who drink coffee in middle age possibly less prevalence of later AD, so people who were drinking lots of coffee right before developing AD could mean a positive or negative affect.

[rladd]

Yay! Decaf works too:

Three instant coffee extracts (light roast, dark roast, decaffeinated dark roast) and six coffee components [caffeine (1), chlorogenic acid (2), quinic acid (3), caffeic acid (4), quercetin (5), and phenylindane (6)] were investigated for their ability to inhibit the fibrillization of Aβ and tau proteins using thioflavin T (ThT) and thioflavin S (ThS) fluorescence assays, respectively. Inhibition of Aβ and α-synuclein oligomerization was assessed using ELISA assays.

All instant coffee extracts inhibit fibrillization of Aβ and tau, and promote α-synuclein oligomerization at concentrations above 100 μg/mL. Dark roast coffee extracts are more potent inhibitors of Aβ oligomerization (IC50 ca. 10 μg/mL) than light roast coffee extract (IC50 = 40.3 μg/mL), and pure caffeine (1) has no effect on Aβ, tau or α-synuclein aggregation.

[ttul]

But do these things pass through the blood brain barrier?

[aradox66]

Wait, instant coffee extract? That is...not espresso

edit: ok, they pulled espresso shots and freeze dried them in the lab (lol) - "The espresso coffee extract was obtained from 15 g of powder using a two-cups coffee machine (Gaggia espresso machine, Gaggia Milano, Italy) for a final volume of 80 mL of beverage. The extraction lasted for 30 s at 80 °C in mQ H2O. The final product was distributed in 15 mL Falcon tubes, freeze-dried, and stored at +4 °C."

[oidar]

Let's fix this title: Espresso coffee mitigates the aggregation of Alzheimer′s associated tau protein in cell cultures

Unless you actually have a port in your head to pour coffee into, this is not going to help you with preventing dementia. Also, it's an open question if Tau related are indeed the cause of AZ related dementia.

This is a very irresponsible title for this research.

[kbelder]

>Unless you actually have a port in your head to pour coffee into

Is that a thing you can get?

[calny]

Love this result, but I’m wary of drawing conclusions from single studies saying caffeinated or alcoholic beverages are good/bad for X health-related issue. Seems like conflicting results show up frequently.

But let’s hope this stands! Back to my coffee…

[cyberax]

> alcoholic beverages

Alcoholic beverages are bad at any level, according to all the recent studies. Previous studies that found mild positive effects for small doses were confounded by uncontrolled factors that overwhelmed the (mild) negative effects of alcohol.

For coffee, we at least have pretty good data showing that even large quantities don't have seriously bad effects. So lower quantities are probably at least neutral for health.

[dillydogg]

I totally agree with you. However, I rationalize this in my mind (in a very biased manner) with this mental gymnastics.

If there was a paper that very thoroughly proved that caffeine was detrimental, it would rocket up into a high tier journal. So I suspect many people may try to look for negative outcomes but aren't finding them. But also I haven't searched for negative chronic effects of caffeine and only hear of results like this. So maybe I'm totally wrong and there's a conspiracy against publishing results on negative effects.

[JimtheCoder]

There are a plethora of studies showing how people who drink the highest amount of caffeine have the lowest incidence of Parkinsons, another protein misfolding disease.

[Pepe1vo]

Kind of weird that they keep emphasizing "espresso" seeing how an Americano/Lungo/Allongé is basically just an espresso with added water (I might've offended some Italians just now). So why not just focus on the active ingredients instead? Maybe to distinguish from all the capsule coffees most people drink?

[fatfingerd]

They gave pretty decent detail for recreating the sample they analyzed. That's probably better than assuming any sample of coffee would have similar compounds and ratios.

[Bjartr]

"True" espresso is extracted at around 100PSI of water pressure, so the coffee most people drink, at least in America, may not have the relevant compounds present of they are only extracted at the higher pressure of a true espresso.

[2-718-281-828]

adding milk and sugar might change something about the effect of espresso. controlling for that would make the entire study much more complicated.

i'm more surprised about them not calling it simply (black) coffee. possibly because espresso preparation is quite defined versus various methods of how to brew coffee.

[gumby]

But what is the impact on cognition. Are tau proteins part of the defense or part of the problem?

[alephxyz]

There have been studies showing that higher coffee consumption correlates to slower cognitive decline. This study only looks at the effects of coffee in vitro.

[FollowingTheDao]

You are right to call this out. Tau are protective, and if you have the genetics, coffee will raise the risk of AD.

Oxidative stress is the fundamental issue causing Alzheimer's. So there are many causes with one result.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5562667/

"Oxidative stress participates in the development of AD by promoting Aβ deposition, tau hyperphosphorylation, and the subsequent loss of synapses and neurons. The relationship between oxidative stress and AD suggests that oxidative stress is an essential part of the pathological process, and antioxidants may be useful for AD treatment."

[andrewl]

I’ve seen a good amount of research suggesting health benefits of coffee (and tea). I’m not sure if there’s anything definitive, but I periodically look into the topic, as I drink a lot of coffee.

Here are free access patient summaries from the Annals of Internal Medicine on the topic of coffee:

https://www.acpjournals.org/action/doSearch?AllField=coffee&...

And tea:

https://www.acpjournals.org/action/doSearch?AllField=tea&Ser...

And here are free articles about coffee from JAMA journals:

https://jamanetwork.com/searchresults?q=coffee&f_SemanticFil...

[greentea23]

https://consensus.app/results/?q=Does%20caffeine%20prevent%2...

[brigadier132]

Ah yes, now I can justify spending $4000 on an espresso machine

[comonoid]

It should be partially compensated by your health insurance.

[Fezzik]

I imagine “connoisseurs” would try to disagree, but Mr Coffee makes a legitimately decent all-in-one machine for $230 - the One Touch CoffeeHouse. I mostly drink lattes and while they are not as frothy and airy as one from an actual coffee house, for the price and ease-to-make they are astonishingly good.

[JimtheCoder]

Well, you can't let a cheap espresso machine touch your $25 bag of single-origin coffee beans...

[baq]

don't spend more than $600 tbh

[thunkle]

Am I only one that feels suspicious that these researcher names are Italian? Next up, Russian study suggests vodka decreases diabetes.

[FirmwareBurner]

Only espresso? So filter coffee does nothing?

[nkingsy]

Because the authors are Italian?

[sudosysgen]

Filter coffee catches oils and particulates, so it's better to try using espresso in case some of those compounds are being removed.

[constantcrying]

Likely cultural factors, but clearly this extends to other methods of processing coffee.

[diydsp]

This is nothing like "coffee precents/cures Alzheimers." This is in vitro cells, it's not clear these compounds cross the BBB, and billions of people drink lots of cofffee and tauopathies are on the rise. Tauopathies are diseases of opulence and on ccontrast to what this paper says, there are effective neutrical treatments (Bredeson protocol)

[tmpz22]

Did a Stanford professor write this?

[nottorp]

Espresso? What about filter? Ristretto? French press? Turkish style?

[lostlogin]

Ristretto uses an espresso machine so I’d expect Simla or behaviour. The others are low pressure, so maybe not?

[coldtea]

Any conflicts of interest with coffee companies?

[meristem]

I’d like to know what team will replicate this.

[kunalgupta]

millennials were right actually

[xchip]

Mitigates how much? Please stop sharing news that make vague claims, HN is not Facebook

[marcopicentini]

How could we trust this result and be sure it is not supported by the coffee industry?

[entropy273]

Look at the institute, sponsors, the authors funding, etc…? It’s not impossible.