Existing Drug May Help Prevent Memory-Loss

First Posted: Dec 22, 2014 03:44 PM EST
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Could an existing drug help prevent the risk of an "old-age" brain?

New findings published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) examine how the medication riluzole could help treat normal, age-related memory loss.

"By examining the neurological changes that occurred after riluzole treatment, we discovered one way in which the brain's ability to reorganize itself -- its neuroplasticity -- can be marshaled to protect it against some of the deterioration that can accompany old age, at least in rodents," said co-senior study author Alfred E. Mirsky Professor Bruce McEwen, head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, in a news release.

As neurons connect to one another in order to form circuits that connect certain parts of the brain, they communicate with the help of a chemical signal known as glutamate. Excessive glutamate can result in damage, where excess can spill out and excite connecting neurons in the wrong spot. This damages neurons, potentially resulting in an increased risk of certain neuogenerative disorders, such as Alzhemier's disease.

Riluzole has previously been used to slow the progression of another neurodegenerative condition, known as ALS( Loui Gehrig's disease). Because the drug helps to control glutamate release and uptake, preventing harmful spillover, researchers also began using it on rats that reached 10 months old or the equivalent of middle age in humans and when their minds started to decline.

Seventeen weeks of testing the rat's spatial memory showed that they performed better than those who did not receive any medications. For example, when placed in a maze they had to explore, the treated rats recognized an unfamiliar arm and spent more time investigating it.

Furthermore, the researchers found telling changes inside the brains of the treated rats. They found vulnerable glutamate sensing circuitry within the hippocampus--a brain region that's linked to memory and emotion.

They saw clustering via thin spines that are a rapidly adaptable type. The animals treated with riluzole showed more clustering than untreated peers. This discovery led the researchers to speculate that, in general, the aged brain may compensate by increasing clustering. Riluzole appears to enhance this mechanism.

"In our study, this phenomenon of clustering proved to be the core underlying mechanism that prevented age-related cognitive decline. By compensating the deleterious changes in glutamate levels with aging and Alzheimer's disease and promoting important neuroplastic changes in the brain, such as clustering of spines, riluzole may prevent cognitive decline," concluded lead study author Ana Pereira, an instructor in clinical investigation in McEwen's laboratory.

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