PMID: 8869917: Alzheimer's disease, Kuf's disease, tellurium and selenium.

[Hans van der Genugten <genugten@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

PMID: 8869917:    Med Hypotheses 1996 Aug;47(2):73-5

Alzheimer's disease, Kuf's disease, tellurium and selenium.

Larner AJ

The possible role of the abnormal trace element tellurium in the
pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease is examined. Tellurium has been reported
to produce cognitive impairment and cerebral lipofuscinosis in rats-changes
akin to those seen in Kuf's disease, a condition which shares certain
clinical and neuropathological features with Alzheimer's disease. Tellurium
can damage mitochondria; defects in mitochondrial energy metabolism may be
relevant to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease. The deficiency of
selenium, which may act physiologically as an antagonist of tellurium, in
the Alzheimer's disease brain would also be in keeping with the hypothesis
of tellurium toxicity as a factor in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's
disease.