Effects of Vitamin E Supplementation on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Oxidative s tress, apoptosis and neuro-inflammation are involved in the pathogenesis of ALS. Antioxidants are hypothesized to be effective in prevention and slowing down the progression rateof the disease. The aim of the present study was to systematically review current literature on the impact of vitamin E supplementation on ALS. PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Web of Science were searched for clinical trials until 10 March 2019 using the following keywords: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , ALS , Immune disorder , Vitamin E , Tocopherols , alpha-Tocopherol , beta-Tocopherol , gamma-Tocopherol and Antioxidant without any filters activated. Two clinical trials and two cohort studies remained. Survival rate was considered as the primary outcome in clinical trials. And in cohort studies, ALS development in healthy subjects was considered. In clinical trials, vitamin E supplementation with the dose of 400 and 5000 mg/day was not effective in slowing down the progression rate of the disease. But in bothcohort studies, 50 mg/day vitamin E supplementation was effective in prevention of ALS development, and the best result was seen in those who took vitamin E supplement regularly for more than 10 years. Vitamin E supplementation is effective in preventing ALS butit has no effect on slowing the progression rate of the disease. Further studies are needed to assess the effects of vitamin E supplement on disease progression in early stages of ALS.