Dietary arachidonic acid: a Janus face actor in brain and Alzheimer’s disease?

Abstract

Arachidonic acid is the second polyunsaturated fatty acid in brain and the first one belonging to the ω-6 series. Dietary intakes of arachidonic are between 50 and 300 mg/day in western diets but they might be underestimated. Triglycerides from fat would provide similar amounts than phospholipids of lean meat. Alzheimer’s disease is an age-associated degenerative disease and a critical health concern worldwide. Amyloid-β peptide oligomers are presently recognized as the main and earliest agents of Alzheimer’s disease although their neurotoxicity requires the presence of tau protein. We and others established that the arachidonic-specific cytosolic phospholipase A2 is critical for the amyloid-β peptide oligomer neurotoxicity. Then, we showed that an arachidonic acid-rich diet increases the mouse sensitivity to the amyloid-β peptide oligomer deleterious effect without major increase of arachidonic acid levels in brain. This suggests that dietary arachidonic acid can exert its effects in brain through peripheral modifications. Involvement of systemic sub-inflammation and gut-brain communications are discussed based on the recent literature. The various data suggest that dietary arachidonic acid should be taken into account in the design of preventive strategies against Alzheimer’s disease.