Citicoline enhances frontal lobe bioenergetics as measured by phosphorus

Published Dec 2008 in
NMR IN BIOMEDICINE

MM Silveri*1,2,3, J Dikan1, AJ Ross1,2,3, JE Jensen2,3, T Kamiya4, Y Kawada4, PF
Renshaw2,3, DA Yurgelun-Todd1,2,3
1Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory and 2Brain Imaging Center, McLean Hospital,
Belmont, MA, and 3Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston,
MA, USA; 4Healthcare Products Development Center, Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co.,
Ltd., Tsukuba, Ibaraki, JAPAN
ABSTRACT
Background: Citicoline supplementation has been used to ameliorate memory
disturbances in elderly and Alzheimer’s disease populations. The current study
used magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to characterize the effects of
citicoline on high-energy phosphate metabolites and constituents of membrane
synthesis in the frontal lobe. Phosphorus (31P) metabolite data were acquired
using a three-dimensional chemical-shift imaging (3D-CSI) protocol at 4 Tesla
from sixteen healthy men and women (aged 47.3 ± 5.4 years) who orally selfadministered
500 mg or 2000 mg of Cognizin® Citicoline (Kyowa Hakko Kogyo
Co., Ltd., JAPAN) for six weeks. Individual 31P metabolites were quantified in the
frontal lobe (anterior cingulate cortex, ACC) and a comparison region (parietooccipital
cortex, POC). Significant increases in phosphocreatine (PCr, +7%), beta
nucleoside triphosphates (β-NTP; largely ATP in brain, +14%) and the ratio of PCr
to inorganic phosphate (Pi, +32%), as well as significant changes in membrane
phospholipids, were observed in the ACC after six weeks of citicoline treatment.
These treatment-related alterations in phosphorus metabolites were not only
regionally specific, but tended to be of greater magnitude in subjects who received
the lower dose. These data demonstrate that citicoline improves frontal lobe
bioenergetics and alters phospholipid membrane turnover. Citicoline
supplementation may therefore help mitigate cognitive declines associated with
aging by increasing energy reserves and utilization, as well as increasing the
amount of essential phospholipid membrane components needed to synthesize
and maintain cell membranes.

Dr. Yurgelun-Todd will present this data June 16th, 2009 at the ISSN meeting in New Orleans.