Injection of a "rejuvenating protein" improved memory in aging monkeys
Cognitive abilities of adult rhesus macaques improved with a single injection of the transmembrane protein klotho.Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) demonstrated improved cognitive function in aging monkeys after a single injection of low doses of the protein klotho. The researchers believe that a similar effect could be observed in humans.
Biologists selected for the test a group of rhesus monkeys, whose average age ranged from 15 to 28 years (average age of about 22 years). This is conventionally equivalent to people between the ages of 45 and 84. All subjects were tested inside a spatial experiment designed to test memory. The monkeys had to explore a maze and remember the location of an edible treat hidden by scientists in one of the remote holes.
The researchers injected all the experimental monkeys subcutaneously with different doses of the drug, prepared on the basis of protein clotho and observed how successfully after that the monkeys coped with the task. The analysis showed that the test results improved significantly after the injection: before receiving the drug, the monkeys correctly remembered the correct wells with the treat in 45% of cases, after - in 60%. This effect persisted for at least several weeks.
Cognitive decline with age is a serious problem facing medicine as people live longer. Cloth is a transmembrane protein that determines the body's sensitivity to insulin. As we age, its concentration decreases in both animals and humans.
Previous studies in mice have shown that injections of Klotho prolong animals' lives and increase synaptic plasticity - the ability to control communication between neurons in synapses. And in humans, higher concentrations of this protein (due to genetic variations or other factors) are associated with better cognitive abilities and a lower risk of developing dementia.
Rhesus macaques are phylogenetically much closer to humans, which means that the effects seen in these animals are more likely to be seen in our species. Researchers believe that in the future a therapy based on the Clotho protein may be developed to prevent the development and reduce the effects of age-related diseases associated with cognitive deterioration (dementia, Alzheimer's disease and others).