Clinical and immunological effects of choline alfoscerate in the treatment of amnestic type Mild Cognitive Impairment

Abstract

To evaluate the change of a number of clinical and immunological parameters of patients with amnestic type Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) in the course of therapy with Choline alfoscerate (α-GPC) in order to develop a monitoring and predicting system of its effectiveness in people at risk for Alzheimer's disease. Thirty patients with aMCI, aged 56 to 82 years (mean age 68.8±9.4 years), received course therapy with α-GPC in capsules of 400 mg 3 times a day (1200 mg per day) for 3 months. Therapeutic efficacy evaluation according to psychometric tests and scales was carried out three times (0, 45 and 90 days), immunological parameters of leukocyte elastase (LE) and α1-protease inhibitor (α1-PI) were evaluated twice on days 0 and 90 of therapy. A good therapeutic effect over the course treatment with α-GPC, both in terms of cognitive functioning and a number of immunological parameters in patients with aMCI was shown. Significant clinical and immunological correlations included both an improvement in cognitive functions (according to MMSE and the Boston Naming Test) and an increase in LE activity level after the completion of a course of α-GPC therapy, which suggest that an increase in LE functional activity can be considered as a potential marker of a positive therapeutic response to α-GPC treatment in aMCI patients. This study shows high significance of further research in assessing the role of immune mechanisms of α-GPC therapeutic efficacy in aMCI patients and the possibility of using immunological parameters as prognostic markers of its therapeutic effect.