Association between caffeine intake and age at onset in Huntington's disease

• Main Authors: Clémence Simonin, Cécile Duru, Julia Salleron, Pascale Hincker, Perrine Charles, Arnaud Delval, Katia Youssov, Sylvie Burnouf, Jean-Philippe Azulay, Christophe Verny, Clarisse Scherer, Christine Tranchant, Cyril Goizet, Sabrina Debruxelles, Luc Defebvre, Bernard Sablonnière, Monique Romon-Rousseaux, Luc Buée, Alain Destée, Olivier Godefroy, Alexandra Dürr, Bernhard Landwehrmeyer, Anne-Catherine Bachoud-Levi, Florence Richard, David Blum, Pierre Krystkowiak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2013-10-01
• Series: Neurobiology of Disease
• Subjects: Huntington's disease; Caffeine; Adenosine receptors
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969996113001551

Habitual consumption of caffeine, a non-selective adenosine receptor (AR) antagonist, has been suggested to be beneficial in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Experimental evidence support that ARs play a role in Huntington's disease (HD) raising the hypothesis that caffeine may be a life-style modifier in HD. To determine a possible relationship between caffeine consumption and age at onset (AAO) in HD, we retrospectively assessed caffeine consumption in 80 HD patients using a dietary survey and determined relationship with AAO. Following adjustment for gender, smoking status and CAG repeat length, caffeine consumption greater than 190 mg/day was significantly associated with an earlier AAO. These data support an association between habitual caffeine intake and AAO in HD patients, but further studies are warranted to understand the link between these variables.