Blocking Brain Protein Could Stop Memory Loss Caused By Ageing

Scientist to Develop Antibodies – Reverse Effects of Aging Protein

Scientists are trying to develop antibodies which may reverse the effects of `aging’ protein that tends to build up in the body and the blood. Researchers from the University of California San Francisco –UCSF, are of the belief that protein which gets accumulated in the blood and the cerebral spiral fluid in elderly people affects the formation of new brain eventually leading to age related memory loss.

It is a known fact that as people tend to age, it gets harder to remember and this occurs when people age and their brain chemistry begins to change. The body contains a kind of protein that interrupts the repair system of the brain cell as people tend to age. This protein beta2-microglobin – B2M, builds in the cerebrospinal fluid and the blood.

 The build-upprotein tend to alter how mice are able to perform in memory test and scientists have been conducting research in determining if eliminating the protein could help the aging memory. Researchers are making progress in discovering medication which could minimize the build-up of B2M and will very soon be capable of testing humans to determine if the protein tends to affect memory with use of appropriate medication to resolve the issue.

Protein Accountable for Brain Degeneration

Researcher from the University of California, Saul Villeda, has been responsible for the original discovery of detailed research of `anti-elixir’, factor, which is the protein accountable for brain degeneration.

Villeda is a former postdoce in the Wyss-Coray lab and as a professor his desire was to study blood factors that contribute to aging like B2M, with a hope of reversing the memory loss or save thoughts of past years by eliminating the protein. Several well-known scientists are aware that B2M is responsible in cutting nerve cell connections in young developing brains.

Major part of the research which has been focused on age reversal is looking into `elixir’ factor which are the agents that bring back youth. For instance, when a young mouse’s blood is injected into an old mouse, the brain and muscle degeneration tends to stop, while broken bones heal and heart damage is prevented. Scientists, at this point consider that the best solution in tackling the aging process is through treatments with the combination of pro-youthful factors and medication which are capable of neutralizing pro-aging agents like B2M. The protein is produces by the human body to assist the immune system to identify the difference between human cells and foreign cells and also has a role in developing the nervous system.

Possibility of Reversing Effects of B2M

But as people begin to age, the protein accumulates and prevents the brain in creating new cells. The cause of this build-up of protein is not clear.The research team of Villeda injected B2M into the brain or blood of young mice and thereafter the young mice performed poorly as the elderly mice in two various kinds of memory tests. After the B2M naturally reduced itself from the younger mice, which took around 30 days, the performance returned back to normal.

This indicates that there is a possibility in reversing the effects of B2M. Villeda had naturally engineered mice which did not develop this protein and their performance was the same at any age. Benjamin Alman from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada is not in agreement that B2M is the only factor causing memory loss as people begin to age. He is presently researching the molecules in the young blood which quickens the healing of bones.

He states that it does give rise to the possibility that failing memory can be rescued by drugs that interferes with circulating factors. The concept is very exciting and would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

Research on Molecules in Blood Associated with Aging

High levels of B2M have been found in people having cognitive disorders which have been associated with aging as well as those with Alzheimer. Initially Villeda’s team observed the protein in the blood of mice as well of people of varying ages and established that the levels does increase with age.

They then injected the protein into three month old mice and discovered that these mice were having problem with memory loss. While struggling to complete a water maze, the mice made more than a couple of mistakes after they had been trained to get through the maze. This took place since these mice had less new neurons than the other young mice.

Villeda is of the opinion that this on-going research ascertains that the blood could be manipulated rather than the brain in treating memory impairment which is a much easier attempt with regards to humans. This would mean that eliminating the protein B2M could help in saving cognitive memory loss. Several studies have been conducted and still going on which are looking into molecules in the blood associated with aging. Researcher, tony Wyss-Coray from Stanford University while working with other researchers confirmed from these and other studies mentioned, that injecting older mice with the blood of younger mice could reverse age related cognitive function and vice-versa