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Blood harmane concentrations and dietary protein consumption in essential tremor

From The Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center (Dr. Louis and L. Applegate), Department of Neurology (Dr. Louis), Taub Institute for Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain (Dr. Louis), College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Department of Epidemiology (Dr. Factor-Litvak), School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY; and School of Public Health (Dr. Zheng and L. Shi), Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Elan Louis, Unit 198, Neurological Institute, 710 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032; e-mail: EDL2{at}columbia.edu

Background: ß-Carboline alkaloids (e.g., harmane) are highly tremorogenic chemicals. Animal protein (meat) is the major dietary source of these alkaloids. The authors previously demonstrated that blood harmane concentrations were elevated in patients with essential tremor (ET) vs controls. Whether this difference is due to greater animal protein consumption by patients or their failure to metabolize harmane is unknown.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether patients with ET and controls differ with regard to 1) daily animal protein consumption and 2) the correlation between animal protein consumption and blood harmane concentration.

Methods: Data on current diet were collected with a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire and daily calories and consumption of animal protein and other food types was calculated. Blood harmane concentrations were log-transformed (logHA).

Results: The mean logHA was higher in 106 patients than 161 controls (0.61 ± 0.67 vs 0.43 ± 0.72 g^–10/mL, p = 0.035). Patients and controls consumed similar amounts of animal protein (50.2 ± 19.6 vs 49.4 ± 19.1 g/day, p = 0.74) and other food types (animal fat, carbohydrates, vegetable fat) and had similar caloric intakes. In controls, logHA was correlated with daily consumption of animal protein (r = 0.24, p = 0.003); in patients, there was no such correlation (r = –0.003, p = 0.98).

Conclusions: The similarity between patients and controls in daily animal protein consumption and the absence of the normal correlation between daily animal protein consumption and logHA in patients suggests that another factor (e.g., a metabolic defect) may be increasing blood harmane concentration in patients.

Supported by NIH grant R01 NS39422, RR00645 (General Clinical Research Center).

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Received February 18, 2005. Accepted in final form April 13, 2005.

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				E. D. Louis, W. Zheng, X. Mao, and D. C. Shungu Blood harmane is correlated with cerebellar metabolism in essential tremor: A pilot study Neurology, August 7, 2007; 69(6): 515 - 520. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]