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Protein reverses memory loss in mice
Source: Agencies |
December 15, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
BOOSTING levels of a memory-related protein reversed memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's disease, a finding that could lead to new approaches to treating people, according to US researchers.
They said raising levels of CREB-binding protein (CBP) - a protein needed to create long-term memories - improved memory in mice bred to develop Alzheimer's, a fatal brain-wasting disease that affects memory, thinking, behavior and the ability to handle daily activities.
"We can reverse the learning and memory deficits by increasing the level of this protein called CBP," said Salvatore Oddo of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, whose study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
He said boosting CBP in mice restores activity of a protein called CREB and increases levels of yet another protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, proteins needed to develop long-term memory.
"In a mouse that develops symptoms like Alzheimer's disease, these proteins are not activated," Oddo said in a telephone interview.
"They may account for the memory impairment in these mice."
Oddo's team used a harmless virus to deliver the protein, then tested learning in memory in the mice using a classic water maze test, in which mice must learn to find an exit platform hidden in a basin of milky liquid. Alzheimer's mice that had been given the protein performed as well as healthy mice.
They said raising levels of CREB-binding protein (CBP) - a protein needed to create long-term memories - improved memory in mice bred to develop Alzheimer's, a fatal brain-wasting disease that affects memory, thinking, behavior and the ability to handle daily activities.
"We can reverse the learning and memory deficits by increasing the level of this protein called CBP," said Salvatore Oddo of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, whose study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
He said boosting CBP in mice restores activity of a protein called CREB and increases levels of yet another protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, proteins needed to develop long-term memory.
"In a mouse that develops symptoms like Alzheimer's disease, these proteins are not activated," Oddo said in a telephone interview.
"They may account for the memory impairment in these mice."
Oddo's team used a harmless virus to deliver the protein, then tested learning in memory in the mice using a classic water maze test, in which mice must learn to find an exit platform hidden in a basin of milky liquid. Alzheimer's mice that had been given the protein performed as well as healthy mice.
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