New therapy 'can reverse Alzheimer's memory loss

Good morning friends. There is this new therapy that can reverse Alzheimer’s memory loss. This is a tough sickness which usually’s the target are older people. Everyone has the mentality that when you got this kind of disease, you will never be cured.

Scientists have developed a new therapy which they claim can prevent and even reverse memory loss in Alzheimer's patients.

It could repair some of the damage caused by the disease by treating patients with a naturally occurring protein in the body, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

"The effects of BDNF were potent. When we administered BDNF to memory circuits in the brain, we directly stimulated their activity and prevented cell death from the disease.

"We have shown that BDNF targets the cells themselves, preventing their death, stimulating their function, improving learning and memory. BDNF treatment can potentially provide long-lasting protection by slowing, or even stopping disease progression in the cortical regions that receive treatment." The scientist found BDNF treatment can slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer's in the animals.

And, compared to animals not treated with the protein they had significant improvement in their memory and learning skills.

It seems to show that another protein, BDNF, may protect and restore memory. This research offers insight into the way in which Alzheimer's progresses and alternative avenues of research."

Reference: indianexpress

Single brain cell can hold memories

Good morning friends. We all know that brain is the most important part of our body. It is the brain who command us what to do. As it is very useful

Individual nerve cells in the front part of the brain can hold traces of memories on their own for as long as a minute and possibly longer.

This is the first time that a study has recognized the specific signal that establishes nonpermanent cellular memory, and revealed how the brain holds temporary information. The new finding has implications for addiction, attention disorders and stress-related memory loss. Permanent memories are known to be stored when the excitatory amino acid glutamate activates in channels on nerve cells in the brain to reorganize and strengthen the cells’ connections with one another.

This process takes minutes to hours to turn on and off and is too slow to buffer, or temporarily hold, rapidly incoming information.

It shows that rapid-fire inputs less than a second long initiate a cellular memory process in single cells lasting as long as minute, a process called metabotropic glutamate transmission.

It has been said that this transmission in the most highly evolved brain region holds moment-to-moment information.

These cellular findings have implications for how the human brain stores rapidly changing information, like the temporary memory a card shark uses when counting cards in a game of Black Jack and, as casinos have figured out. It is the memory that is most sensitive to the disruptive effects of alcohol and noisy distractions.

ref: The times of India