Significance of hypouricaemia in the development of neurodegenerative diseases

Abstract

Hypouricaemia has received relatively little attention in the literature. As a result, there is lessawareness or understanding of the potential risks of low uric acid levels. Emerging research indi-cates that normal uric acid levels may have an antioxidative and neuroprotective effect. Thisstudy aims to investigate possible associations between hypouricaemia and neurodegenerativedisease. Data was collected from seventy-seven outpatients and inpatients who underwent rou-tine uric acid testing, who were then stratified into patients with and without neurodegenerativedisease. Patients with renal pathologies and patients using uric acid altering medications were ex-cluded from the study. There was a significant difference in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s diseasebetween hypouricemic and normouricemic patients (p= 0.001), however there was no differencein the prevalence of vascular dementia (p= 0.45). This study provides evidence that hypouricae-mia has potential effects on health, specifically on the rate of neurodegenerative diseases suchas Alzheimer’s disease and gives weight to the potential neuroprotective role of uric acid.