Can we bolt brain cells together to聽protect our memories from ageing or Alzheimer鈥檚? It鈥檚 an eccentric idea, but there are signs聽it could work.
Rahul Kaushik of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Magdeburg and his聽colleagues have created a聽molecule to reinforce the connections between brain cells called neurons, acting like the steel bars in reinforced concrete. Although the聽approach hasn鈥檛 yet聽been tested in people, injecting this molecule into the brains of mice seems to improve their memories.
鈥淚t is very clever and has a natural logic to it,鈥� says John Aggleton of Cardiff University, UK.
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The connections between brain聽cells, known as synapses, allow signals to jump from one cell to another. Our memories are聽made of networks of strengthened synapses between聽millions of brain cells distributed through our heads.
To reinforce this, Kaushik鈥檚 team has designed a molecule called CPTX. This chemical binds to compounds on the surface of聽brain cells on either side of a synapse, creating an artificial bridge between the two cells.
In Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, people gradually lose synapses for decades before the damage is enough to start causing memory loss and confusion. 鈥淭he聽idea is you don鈥檛 allow the synapses to go away,鈥� says Kaushik. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 let two neurons detach from each other completely.鈥�
When the team injected the molecule into mice genetically altered to have Alzheimer鈥檚-like symptoms, they did better in memory tests than the same kind聽of mice that didn鈥檛 receive the chemical. These tests included聽having to recognise a聽new object, and learning that they would receive electric shocks in a certain location.
When the animals鈥� brains were聽examined, those that had聽received the treatment had 30聽per cent more synapses than those that hadn鈥檛, Kaushik told the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies meeting in聽Berlin last month.
The effect tailed off after seven days. But the team is developing a聽gene therapy in the hope that it will聽make brain cells produce their聽own supply of the synapse-boosting molecule. 鈥淵ou could have long-lasting effects up to years,鈥� says Kaushik.
Carol Routledge of charity Alzheimer鈥檚 Research UK says that聽if the technique works, we would also need better tests to detect the onset of dementia several years before symptoms begin. 鈥淟ots of people are focusing on early diagnosis. Everyone realises we need to treat聽earlier than we are doing.鈥�
Routledge says the approach might also help people who develop the memory problems common with ageing. 鈥淲hether we should be able to slow down cognitive ageing 鈥� that鈥檚 a whole other question,鈥� she says.
A big unknown, though, is whether an artificial synapse strengthener might make it harder to forget things that we normally want to lose, such as day-to-day trivia.
Aggleton says people shouldn鈥檛 get too optimistic about the approach before it has been tested聽in people. 鈥淭here have been a lot of studies that seem to show ways of ameliorating changes in Alzheimer鈥檚 mouse models,鈥� he says, but the same positive effects are rarely seen when trials are done with humans.
This article appears in print under the headline 鈥淏rain glue holds memories longer鈥�
