Trehalose

Also known as: mycose, alpha,alpha-trehalose disaccharide

WellnessIM / IV / SQ Therapy

In plain English

Trehalose is a natural sugar (two glucose units) widely used as a safe food ingredient and stabilizer. In laboratory and animal studies it can switch on the cell's "cleanup" process (autophagy), which is why it is being explored for brain diseases with protein buildup, like ALS and Parkinson's. Human evidence as a treatment is very limited and early; intravenous trehalose is investigational and not FDA-approved as a therapy.

The science

Trehalose is a non-reducing disaccharide that induces autophagy, in part by causing mild lysosomal stress that activates the transcription factor TFEB and the autophagy-lysosome pathway, enhancing clearance of aggregation-prone proteins in models of motor-neuron and other neurodegenerative diseases (Rusmini et al., 2019). This has motivated interest in ALS, Parkinson's, and Huntington's disease. Human clinical evidence is limited and preliminary (small/early-phase studies), oral bioavailability is limited by intestinal trehalase, and intravenous trehalose as a therapeutic is investigational and not FDA-approved. It has a strong safety record as a food additive.

References

• Rusmini P et al., Autophagy 2019 (trehalose induces autophagy via TFEB in motoneuron disease models)