Biomedical scientists at UTMB's Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases are studying blood transfers to restore memory
We all know the benefits of regular exercise in advancing and maintaining our health. At my house, we keep track of our daily step count. There are well documented positive effects to your circulatory and respiratory systems with regular exercise. I’m sure you’ve heard this from your primary care doctor too. Recent studies also show that more frequent cardiovascular exercise enhances your mental health.
A recent Swedish study of more than 36,000 people with an average age of 41 revealed that those doing regular exercise had fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. Other studies have shown that exercise leads to the production of new brain cells, improves learning and memory and reduces inflammation in the brain. Inflammation is thought to be a key element of dementia.
A few years ago, studies showed that transferring blood from young animals to older animals improved the older animals’ memory. In new research, scientists assessed whether blood plasma from active mice would lead to improvements in the brains of “couch potato” mice. Plasma is the yellowish liquid part of the blood. Plasma contains no cells but it does carry proteins, electrolytes, glucose and other small molecules.
The experiment used hamster wheels to provide exercise for the mice. The mice ran up to six miles per night. Control mice had access to a wheel that didn’t spin. The exercising mice showed significant improvements in their brain function in memory tests. Now comes the cool part. The scientists removed blood plasma from the exercising mice and injected it into sedentary mice every three days for 28 days. The couch potato mice that received plasma from the exercising group showed the same improvements seen in the original exercising mice. Also, multiple genes that account for inflammation in the brains of these animals showed a reduction, even when the scientists tried to induce inflammation.
What is it in the transferred plasma that produces these beneficial effects? The scientists found four proteins that influence inflammation or immunity in the plasma of the exercising animals. They tested each of the four proteins by eliminating them one at a time. A protein called clusterin was found to be highly associated with the anti-inflammation effects. It may not be quite that simple though, because there are as many as nine other molecules that could be involved. This is still promising. It’s easy to imagine a series of future pharmaceuticals aimed at improving memory and brain function arising from this work.
I can see it now. Uncle George tells his athletic son Fred to work out and donate some plasma to him because he wants to improve his memory. This may be part science fiction, but now it seems to be in the realm of possibility. If treatments based on this are developed, this concept would definitely be a boon for older people, but plasma donations could also set off a huge number of ethical concerns. This will be interesting to watch as the research progresses. I hope I remember to pay attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment