(Eurasiareview) - Let it be no misunderstanding: heavy alcohol intake has severe harmful effects. But already for several years, researchers have been finding that moderate wine intake can be beneficial in delaying the onset of cognitive impairments in aging and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Esteban-Fernández from the Institute of Food Science Research in Madrid and her colleagues have been investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the neuroprotective actions of wine, recently published in Frontiers in Nutrition.

Instead of investigating wine directly, they studied the compounds that are left after the wine has passed through the gut: the so-called wine-derived human gut metabolites. They selected some of these metabolites based on their presence in the urine and feces of people consuming wine on a regular and moderate basis.

To explore the neuronal effect of these compounds, they added them to human cells under stress conditions that normally lead to neuronal cell dysfunction and death. These conditions are related to the initial stages of some neurodegenerative disorders.