Drugs that quell brain inflammation reverse dementia

Andy · Dec 4, 2019

Summary: A synthesized small-molecule drug blocks the TGF-beta receptor in astrocytes and traverses the blood-brain barrier in mice. When administered, the drug lowered receptor activity to that seen in younger mice and reduced inflammation. The aged mice were able to navigate mazes and learn spatial tasks as well as younger mice.

Source: UC Berkeley

Drugs that tamp down inflammation in the brain could slow or even reverse the cognitive decline that comes with age.

In a publication appearing today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, University of California, Berkeley, and Ben-Gurion University scientists report that senile mice given one such drug had fewer signs of brain inflammation and were better able to learn new tasks, becoming almost as adept as mice half their age.

“We tend to think about the aged brain in the same way we think about neurodegeneration: Age involves loss of function and dead cells. But our new data tell a different story about why the aged brain is not functioning well: It is because of this “fog” of inflammatory load,” said Daniela Kaufer, a UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and a senior author, along with Alon Friedman of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and Dalhousie University in Canada. “But when you remove that inflammatory fog, within days the aged brain acts like a young brain. It is a really, really optimistic finding, in terms of the capacity for plasticity that exists in the brain. We can reverse brain aging.”
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https://neurosciencenews.com/inflammation-drugs-dementia-15285/

Jaybee00 · Dec 4, 2019

Probably this...

https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/detail/1574495

Jaybee00 · Dec 4, 2019

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/02/01/537431.full.pdf

James Morris-Lent · Dec 4, 2019

Breakthrough news for those with elderly pet mice.

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Drugs that quell brain inflammation reverse dementia

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Drugs that quell brain inflammation reverse dementia

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