Table 1.

Evidence for the roles of urate in neuroprotection

Type of evidence		PD	ALS	Others
Epidemiologic	Risk	Inverse association [13–20]		Inverse association with AD risk [21]
(urate levels, urate genetic determinants, diet)	Progression	Inverse association [22–24]	Inverse association [25–28] No association [29, 30]	Inverse association in HD, MSA, MCI [31–33]
Laboratory	In vitro	Neuroprotective [34–36]		Neuroprotective in cultured spinal cord neurons [37]
	In vivo	Neuroprotective [35]		Neuroprotective in SCI, brain ischemia/stroke, MS [38–41]
Clinical trials		SURE-PD (phase II trial) [10]		URICO-ICTUS (phase IIb/III trial in stroke) [42, 43]

PD = Parkinson’s disease; ALS = amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; AD = Alzheimer’s disease; HD = Huntington’s disease; MSA = multiple system atrophy; MCI = mild cognitive impairment; SCI = spinal cord injury; MS = multiple sclerosis