The New Way to Combat Memory Loss

We all wonder how to do it.  Whether it be for exams or anything else, we all want to try and figure out how to remember things easier and to not forget them.  Well, a research team located within The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System (VA) and University of California (UC) San Diego School of Medicine recently discovered that by increasing a crucial cholesterol-binding membrane protein in nerve cells within the brain, learning and memory functions were greatly improved within mice.

Granted this is mice that were used in this study.  However, mice and humans do share similar molecular structure and function to one another.  If anything, testing on mice can provide a fantastic outlook on what a drug or a medical technique would do to a human.  Therefore, it could become way easier to remember all kinds of things in the future, including your girlfriend's or wife's anniversary (heaven forbid that you forget that date).

"By bringing back this protein, you're actually bringing cholesterol back to the cell membrane, which is very important for forming new synaptic contacts" said author Brian Head, a research scientist with the VA and associate professor at UC San Diego.  By doing so, scientists have a much greater understanding of neuroplasticity (the ability of neural pathways to grow in response to new stimuli).  This was all observed when the membrane protein called caveolin-1 (Cav-1) was injected directly into a region of the brain known as the hippocampus in adult and "aged" mice (older mice).  As a result, there was improved neuron growth within the mice and a better retrieval of contextual memories (responding to past stimuli like freezing in place in fear in a location where they had received electrical shocks before).  As a result, the scientists are also looking into other ways that Cav-1 could be used.  "We're very interested in studying whether we can manipulate Cav-1 in other areas of the brain," Mandyam, associate professor at TSRI and co-first author of the study with Jan M. Schilling of UC San Diego and the VA, said.

So above all, be on the lookout for a new drug on the shelves in your local CVS hopefully within the next decade or so, cause Cav-1 looks like it really works.  Just think, improved memory and learning all through the injection of Cav-1 into your brain.

Check out the story at this link below:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/sri-sdt102015.php