Old rat brains rejuvenated and new neurons grown by asthma drug
It’s as good as new. An asthma drug has rejuvenated rat brains, making old rats perform as well as young rats in tests of memory and cognition. The drug also encouraged the birth of new brain cells.
As we get older, most of us will experience some kind of brain degeneration. Typically, we lose the ability to make new neurons. Another problem is chronic, low-grade inflammation in the brain, which is implicated in many age-related brain disorders.
To tackle both problems in one go, Ludwig Aigner at Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg in Austria and his colleagues targeted a set of receptors in the brain that, when activated, trigger inflammation.
High numbers of these receptors are found in areas of the brain where neurons are born, suggesting they might also be involved in this process, too.
A drug called montelukast (Singulair), regularly prescribed for asthma and allergic rhinitis, blocks these receptors, so Aigner and his colleagues tried it on young and old rats . .
. . . When the team studied the brains of the animals [ after a six-week drug regime], they found that old rats that had been given montelukast had 80 per cent less inflammation. They also had an enhanced level of new neuron growth compared with untreated old rats – about 50 per cent of that seen in young rats, says Aigner.
. . . The drug had no effect on young animals, probably because it targets inflammation associated with age and disease, says Aigner. “We’ve identified a target that affects many different systems of the aged and degenerated brain,” he says. “I think the drug reverses the damage associated with ageing.”
Full article: Old rat brains rejuvenated and new neurons grown by asthma drug
It’s as good as new. An asthma drug has rejuvenated rat brains, making old rats perform as well as young rats in tests of memory and cognition. The drug also encouraged the birth of new brain cells.
As we get older, most of us will experience some kind of brain degeneration. Typically, we lose the ability to make new neurons. Another problem is chronic, low-grade inflammation in the brain, which is implicated in many age-related brain disorders.
To tackle both problems in one go, Ludwig Aigner at Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg in Austria and his colleagues targeted a set of receptors in the brain that, when activated, trigger inflammation.
High numbers of these receptors are found in areas of the brain where neurons are born, suggesting they might also be involved in this process, too.
A drug called montelukast (Singulair), regularly prescribed for asthma and allergic rhinitis, blocks these receptors, so Aigner and his colleagues tried it on young and old rats . .
. . . When the team studied the brains of the animals [ after a six-week drug regime], they found that old rats that had been given montelukast had 80 per cent less inflammation. They also had an enhanced level of new neuron growth compared with untreated old rats – about 50 per cent of that seen in young rats, says Aigner.
. . . The drug had no effect on young animals, probably because it targets inflammation associated with age and disease, says Aigner. “We’ve identified a target that affects many different systems of the aged and degenerated brain,” he says. “I think the drug reverses the damage associated with ageing.”
Full article: Old rat brains rejuvenated and new neurons grown by asthma drug
