Memory gene discovery may help cure Alzheimer’s
Published: April 25, 2007
For those who struggle to remember birthdays and the location of car keys, hopes of a cure have arrived.
Scientists announced on Monday that the world’s first memory pill could be developed after they identified a gene mutation that affected the memory of mice.
The discovery was made when researchers suppressed the activity of the gene in mice before they swam around a water maze, noting that the altered mice performed better.
But when the gene’s activity was increased, the performance of the mice’s memory was worse.
Regulatory protein
The scientists hope to find molecules that target and inhibit the gene, which is also thought to exist in humans.
Ultimately this could lead to a memory-enhancing pill. Dr Mauro Costa-Mattioli, from McGill University, Montreal, said: “If such a pill could be generated, it might provide a new method for treating people with memory-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
“While a drug that worked in this way wouldn’t cure the disease itself, it might rescue the symptoms of memory loss.”
The identified gene makes a regulatory protein called eIF2a, which normally keeps a check on memory.
Mice that were genetically engineered to carry a defective version of the gene showed an improved talent for spatial learning.
Trained
In the maze, the mice were trained to swim to a hidden platform.
After several days the mutant mice were able to find the platform significantly faster than normal mice.
“If a person were reading a page of a textbook, it might take several times to memorise it,” said Dr Costa-Mattioli, who published his findings in the journal Cell.
“A human equivalent of these mice would get the information right away.”
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