Aviation Stories

Clinical Study of Neuroprotective Effects of Palm Vitamin E TocotrienolsThere are various ongoing clinical studies which involves tocotrienols. One of the most extensively investigated area is the neuroprotective effects of tocotrienols. Several studies conducted by Sen and co-workers in isolated human neuronal cells using nanomolar concentration of tocotrienol, but not tocopherol, demonstrated potent inhibition of cell signalling pathway which causes neuronal damages and the ability to reverse the condition. Similar conclusions were confirmed during subsequent work in animals, where gene knocked-out mice were employed to assess the efficacy of tocotrienols in preventing stroke and in reversing the effects in post-stroke condition. As a consequence of these studies the necessity of human trials arose.The research firstly focussed on identifying an appropriate human model that could be used as stroke-predictive factor. This model found in the brain white matter lesion (WML), fettbinder that is a neuronal damage in the brain while matter and is causally related to stroke. WML represents a microvascular ischemic changes in the brain (the smaller caliber blood vessels in the brain showing signs of ischemia or decreased blood flow indicating the presence of a fragile cerebral vascular network). Hence these white matter abnormalities on MRI are more commonly seen in patients who have microvascular and macrovascular risk factors such as a history of hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol (dyslipidemia / bad lipid profile). Most of the time, patients who get stroke are unaware of the symptoms or remain asymptomatic, in view of this it creates great interest for us to look into the treatment and prevention of stroke.Conduct of Tocotrienols StudyIt is a double blind placebo controlled clinical trial. Healthy volunteers above 35 years are eligible to participate. They will undergo screening for the inclusion and exclusion criteria to be considered in the study.