Rapamycin has confirmed its effectiveness
Scientists have found out how to stop brain aging and improve memory
Scientists have found that rapamycin, a substance used as an immunosuppressant, helps maintain cerebral circulation and improves memory. The results of the study are published in the journal Aging Cell (Van Skike et al., mTOR drives cerebrovascular, synaptic, and cognitive dysfunction in normal aging).
The brain consumes a huge amount of energy, but does not have its own resources to replenish it. Glucose and oxygen, which are necessary for neurons, are supplied to the brain through blood vessels. With age, the cerebral circulation weakens. Neuronal activity decreases, respectively, cognitive abilities suffer, memory deteriorates. Violation of cerebral blood flow is in the first place among the risk factors for the development of Alzheimer's disease.
American scientists led by Candice Van Schicke (Candice E. Van Skike) from the University of Texas Medical Research Center in San Antonio, conducting experiments on rats, found that an age-related decrease in blood flow to the brain and memory loss can be stopped with the help of rapamycin, a substance that is part of drugs used in organ transplantation to reduce the risk of rejection.
Scientists have found that in elderly rats who were fed rapamycin, the cerebral blood flow did not weaken with age, and memory even improved.
The researchers started giving rapamycin to rodents starting at 19 months (the average age for rats) and continued to do it daily until they reached 34 months. At this very advanced age for rats, the blood circulation in the brain of animals was exactly the same as at the beginning of the experiment. In elderly rats from the control group who did not receive the drug, the aging processes proceeded naturally.
"Old rats treated with rapamycin looked like middle–aged rats in our study," the press release says. The University of Texas Medical Research Center words by Candice Van Schicke.
Previously, the authors found that age-related processes can be controlled using the mTOR protein, which regulates cell growth and aging. In this study, scientists using a set of methods, including behavioral experiments, functional imaging based on MRI, biochemical and immunohistochemical analyses, found that chronic suppression of mTOR with rapamycin restores synapses – connections between brain neurons, which improves cognitive abilities and memory.
Scientists plan to continue their research and find out whether taking rapamycin will affect the inhibition of aging processes in the body as a whole, and whether it is possible to prevent the development of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease in the elderly with the help of this drug.
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