New molecular discovery may help identify drug therapies to prevent dementia
"Memory decline brings much suffering to the affected individuals and their families and leads to staggering social and economic costs," said Gleb Shumyatsky, an associate professor in the Department of Genetics in the School of Arts and Sciences, who co-authored the study with former postdoctoral researcher Shusaku Uchida. "This work may provide scientists with answers and therapeutic help in the future for those going through normal aging or suffering from dementia." The research published on January 10 in Cell Reports focuses on the signaling pathways in the hippocampus, the area of the brain where learning and memory takes place. The scientists looked at how information is transmitted from the synapses -- the point where neurons connect and communicate with each other -- to the nuclei in the hippocampal neuronal cells. Using laboratory mice, researchers found that a protein (CRTC1) enhances memory by controlling gene expression -- a process that allow...