eLife: The drug can reverse age-related cognitive decline in a matter of days

December 3, 2020 /--- -- An experimental drug could reverse memory declines in age-related mice, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco.
The ISR inhibitor drug has been shown in laboratory studies to restore memory function months after traumatic brain injury (TBI), reverse cognitive impairment in Down syndrome, prevent noise-related hearing loss, treat certain types of prostate cancer and even enhance awareness in healthy animals.
new study, published In the December 1, 2020 issue of eLife, researchers showed that young cognitive abilities in older mice recovered rapidly, while brain and immune cells recovered, which could explain improvements in brain function.
(Photo Source: Www.pixabay.com) "Our study is the first to show that age-related cognitive loss may be caused primarily by a reversible physiological "block" rather than permanent degradation," dr. Susanna Rosi said.
Peter Walter added: "The data suggest that the aging brain does not permanently lose the necessary cognitive abilities, as is often thought, but that these cognitive resources still exist, but are somehow blocked by a vicious cycle of cellular stress."
" ISR usually detects problems with protein production in cells (which may be a sign of viral infection or a genetic mutation that promotes cancer) and reacts through the protein synthesis mechanisms of brake cells.
and colleagues have found that this safety mechanism is essential for removing abnormally behavioral cells.
TBI patients are often considered premature aging, leading Rosi and Walter to question whether ISR may also be the molecular basis for purely age-related cognitive decline.
it is well known that aging can damage cell protein production throughout the body, leading to chronic inflammation that can eventually lead to widespread isilization of ISR.
In the new study, researchers led by Dr. Karen Krukowski, a postdoctoral researcher at Rosi Labs, trained adult animals to escape from the water maze by finding a hidden platform, which is often difficult for older animals.
and young mice who received small doses of ISR inhibitors daily during the three-day training session were able to do the task, much better than older animals that did not receive the drug.
, the researchers tested how long the cognitive healing phenomenon lasted and whether it could be extended to other cognitive skills.
weeks after the initial ISR inhibitor treatment, they trained the same mice to get rid of the maze, which's exit changes every day.
who received brief ISRIB treatment three weeks ago still showed higher levels of cognition, while untreated mice continued to show lower levels.
To understand how ISR inhibition may improve brain function, the researchers studied the activity and anatomy of the hema cells, the brain regions that play a key role in learning and memory, a day after giving animals a single dose of ISRIB.
They found that common features of neuron aging disappeared almost overnight: the electrical activity of neurons became brighter and responded to stimuli, and cells showed greater connectivity to surrounding cells, as well as the ability to form stable connections with each other, usually in young mice.
are continuing to study how ISRs can disrupt cognition in aging and other situations, and to understand how long the cognitive benefits of ISRIB can last.
, the study found that ISR inhibitors also alter the function of Immune system T cells, which are also prone to age-related dysfunction.
findings suggest that the drug can improve cognitive ability in older animals and may have an impact on diseases from Alzheimer's disease to diabetes, which are associated with increased inflammation caused by an aging immune system.
Source: .com: Drug reverses age-related cognitive decline within days Source: Karen Krukowski et al. Small molecule cognitive enhancer reverses age-related memory decline in mice, eLife (2020). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.62048。