Dementia, phosphatidylcholine

Acetylcholine Precursors. Early efforts to treat dementia using cholinomimetics focused on choline [62-49-7] (12) supplement therapy (Fig. 3). This therapy, analogous to L-dopa [59-92-7] therapy for Parkinson s disease, is based on the hypothesis that increasing the levels of choline in the brain bolsters acetylcholine (ACh) synthesis and thereby reverses deficits in cholinergic function. In addition, because choline is a precursor of phosphatidylcholine as well as ACh, its supplementation may be neuroprotective in conditions of choline deficit (104). 

Schaefer EJ, Bongard V, Beiser AS, Lamon-Fava S, Robins SJ, Au R, Tucker KL, Kyle DJ, Wilson PW, Wolf PA. (2006) Plasma phosphatidylcholine docosahexaenoic acid content and risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease The framingham heart study. Arch Neurol 63 1545-1550. 

There is some evidence that the availability of choline may be limiting for the synthesis of acetylcholine in the central nervous system under some conditions, and supplements of phosphatidylcholine increase the rate of acetylcholine turnover. One systematic review concludes that phosphatidylcholine supplements result in some improvement in cognitive function in patients with dementia, especially when this is secondary to cerebrovascular disorder (Fioravanti and Yanagi, 2000), but another concludes that there is no evidence to support its use in the treatment of dementia (Higgins and Flicker, 2000). Although phosphatidylcholine has been used to treat tardive dyskinesia... 

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