Pilot Projects

Title: Environmental risk factors for Essential Tremor (ET): Comparison of beta-carboline alkaloid (BCA) levels among ET cases and controls; and b) Comparison of BCA levels among ET cases and control subjects.

Investigator: Elan Louis, MD, MS

Description: Essential tremor (ET), a tremor of the hands, is one of the most common neurological disorders. There are no studies of environmental risk factors for ET. The beta-carboline alkaloids (BCAs) are chemicals which produce an action tremor in laboratory animals which is similar to ET. The BCAs are present in numerous foods.  The goals of the present study are: a) to develop a high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) assay to measure the concentration of two BCAs (harmane and harmine) in rat and human blood specimens; and b) to determine whether BCA levels are higher in ET cases than in control subjects. An HPLC method to determine the concentration of beta-carboline alkaloids in human blood using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and fluoresence detection was developed. In addition, the pilot study has led to a four-year award from NINDS to study the environmental epidemiology of essential tremor, as well as a grant from the Dana Foundation to study the metabolic topography of essential tremor.

Grants: NINDS Grant: “Environmental Epidemiology of Essential Tremor” R01-NS39422; The Charles A. Dana Foundation Award: “Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging to Identify Metabolic Abnormalities as Potential Biological Markers in Essential Tremor”

Publications:  Zheng W, Wang S, Barnes LF, Guan Y,  Louis ED. Determination of harmane and harmine in human blood using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and fluoresence detection. Anal Biochem 2000;279:125-129.