A PROTEIN that supports the growth and upkeep of brain cells has boosted memory and learning in rodents and primates with animal versions of Alzheimer’s.
A team led by of the University of California, San Diego, injected brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) into the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus, the parts of the brain where memories are formed and consolidated, and where Alzheimer’s strikes first.
Afterwards, all the animals, which included mice with a version of Alzheimer’s, elderly rats and monkeys with natural degeneration, and rats and monkeys given brain lesions similar to those of Alzheimer’s, improved their performance on memory and learning tests (Nature Medicine, ).
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The injections also reduced the rate of brain cell death and increased by 25 per cent the number of connections between neurons, a crucial aspect of memory formation. Interestingly, these benefits arose even in animals whose brains had developed the protein plaques typical of Alzheimer’s and often blamed for its symptoms.
Some animals received BDNF directly, but the best results were in those injected with a harmless virus carrying the BDNF gene, which continued to make the protein.
Tuszynski says that trials in people could start in as soon as two years. Charles Harrington of , a company in Aberdeen, UK, developing a drug for Alzheimer’s, questions whether brain injections in people would be safe or practical.
