(Press-News.org) Scientists at the University of Warwick have provided the first evidence that the lack of a naturally occurring protein is linked to early signs of dementia.
Published in Nature Communications, the research found that the absence of the protein MK2/3 promotes structural and physiological changes to cells in the nervous system. These changes were shown to have a significant correlation with early signs of dementia, including restricted learning and memory formation capabilities.
An absence of MK2/3, in spite of the brain cells (neurons) having significant structural abnormalities, did not prevent memories being formed, but did prevent these memories from being altered.
The results have led the researchers to call for greater attention to be paid to studying MK2/3.
Lead researcher and author Dr Sonia Corrêa says that "Understanding how the brain functions from the sub-cellular to systems level is vital if we are to be able to develop ways to counteract changes that occur with ageing.
"By demonstrating for the first time that the MK2/3 protein, which is essential for neuron communication, is required to fine-tune memory formation this study provides new insight into how molecular mechanisms regulate cognition".
Neurons can adapt memories and make them more relevant to current situations by changing the way they communicate with other cells.
Information in the brain is transferred between neurons at synapses using chemicals (neurotransmitters) released from one (presynaptic) neuron which then act on receptors in the next (postsynaptic) neuron in the chain.
MK2/3 regulates the shape of spines in properly functioning postsynaptic neurons. Postsynaptic neurons with MK2/3 feature wider, shorter spines (Fig.1) than those without (Fig2) - see attached diagram and photo.
The researchers found that change, caused by MK2/3's absence, in the spine's shape restricts the ability of neurons to communicate with each other, leading to alterations in the ability to acquire new memories.
"Deterioration of brain function commonly occurs as we get older but, as result of dementia or other neurodegenerative diseases, it can occur earlier in people's lives", says Dr Corrêa. "For those who develop the early signs of dementia it becomes more difficult for them to adapt to changes in their life, including performing routine tasks.
"For example, washing the dishes; if you have washed them by hand your whole life and then buy a dishwasher it can be difficult for those people who are older or have dementia to acquire the new memories necessary to learn how to use the machine and mentally replace the old method of washing dishes with the new. The change in shape of the postsynaptic neuron due to absence of MK2/3 is strongly correlated with this inability to acquire the new memories".
Dr Corrêa argues that "Given their vital role in memory formation, MK2/3 pathways are important potential pharmaceutical targets for the treatment of cognitive deficits associated with ageing and dementia."
INFORMATION:
Notes to Editors:
The research was supported by the BBSRC.
The paper can be accessed here: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140819/ncomms5701/full/ncomms5701.html END
Lack of naturally occuring protein linked to dementia
2014-08-26
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Existing power plants will spew 300 billion more tons of carbon dioxide during use
2014-08-26
Irvine, Calif. — Existing power plants around the world will pump out more than 300 billion tons of carbon dioxide over their expected lifetimes, significantly adding to atmospheric levels of the climate-warming gas, according to UC Irvine and Princeton University scientists.
Their findings, which appear Aug. 26 in the journal Environmental Research Letters, are the first to quantify how quickly these "committed" emissions are growing – by about 4 percent per year – as more fossil fuel-burning power plants are built.
Assuming these stations will operate for 40 years, ...
Brain benefits from weight loss following bariatric surgery
2014-08-26
Washington, DC—Weight loss surgery can curb alterations in brain activity associated with obesity and improve cognitive function involved in planning, strategizing and organizing, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Obesity can tax the brain as well as other organs. Obese individuals face a 35 percent higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease compared to normal weight people.
Bariatric surgery is used to help people who are dangerously obese lose weight. Bariatric surgery procedures ...
Coal's continued dominance must be made more vivid in climate change accounting
2014-08-26
The world's accounting system for carbon emissions, run by the United Nations, disregards capital investments in future coal-fired and natural-gas power plants that will commit the world to several decades and billions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study from Princeton University and the University of California-Irvine published Aug. 26 in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
In the paper, Robert Socolow, a Princeton professor, emeritus, of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and co-author Steven Davis, a professor of earth system science ...
Competition for graphene
2014-08-26
A new argument has just been added to the growing case for graphene being bumped off its pedestal as the next big thing in the high-tech world by the two-dimensional semiconductors known as MX2 materials. An international collaboration of researchers led by a scientist with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has reported the first experimental observation of ultrafast charge transfer in photo-excited MX2 materials. The recorded charge transfer time clocked in at under 50 femtoseconds, comparable to the fastest times ...
Expanding the age of eligibility for measles vaccination could increase childhood survival in Africa
2014-08-26
PRINCETON, N.J.—Expanding the age of eligibility for measles vaccination from 12 to 15 months could have potentially large effects on coverage in Africa, according to a new report published by Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
If combined with improvements to the vaccination process itself, such a change could help the country inch closer to the national coverage levels required for measles eradication. The findings were published in Epidemiology & Infection.
"The age of routine vaccination is usually set to around 12 ...
And then there were 10 -- unexpected diversity in New Zealand kanuka genus Kunzea
2014-08-26
At the stroke of a pen a New Zealand endemic tree has for the last 31 years been incorrectly regarded the same as a group of 'weedy' Australian shrubs and small trees. A New Zealand botanist has completed a 15-year study to reveal some surprises and discover astonishing cryptic diversity behind what was long considered a single tree species. The study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.
Known to botanists as Kunzea ericoides, this species was one of the many discoveries made in the north-western South Island of New Zealand by Jules Sébastien César Dumont ...
Best view yet of merging galaxies in distant universe
2014-08-26
An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) -- among other telescopes -- has obtained the best view yet of a collision between two galaxies when the Universe was only half its current age.
To make this observation, the team also enlisted the help of a gravitational lens, a galaxy-size magnifying glass, to reveal otherwise invisible detail. These new studies of galaxy HATLAS J142935.3-002836 have shown that this complex and distant object looks surprisingly like the comparatively ...
Surgery to repair a hip fracture reduces lifetime health care costs by more than $65,000 per patient
2014-08-26
ROSEMONT, Ill.—Each year, more than 300,000 Americans, primarily adults over age 65, sustain a hip fracture, a debilitating injury that can diminish life quality and expectancy, and result in lost work days and substantial, long-term financial costs to patients, families, insurers and government agencies. And while surgery, the primary treatment for hip fractures, successfully reduces mortality risk and improves physical function, little is known about the procedure's value and return on investment.
A new study, appearing in the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related ...
Ames test adapted successfully to screen complex aerosols
2014-08-26
The Ames test, a widely used method to determine whether a chemical has the potential to cause cancer, has been successfully adapted for use with cigarette smoke and other complex aerosols.
The traditional Ames test is not suitable for use with aerosols and gases, which means that in the past, the toxicity of cigarette smoke was tested using just the particulate extract from smoke and not the whole smoke, thereby giving an incomplete picture of the toxic profile. The particulate fraction is only a small part of the whole-smoke aerosol, which also comprises a vapour phase ...
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia reports on 100 recent fetal surgeries for spina bifida
2014-08-26
Philadelphia, Aug. 25, 2014 – Reporting on 100 recent cases of fetal surgery for spina bifida, specialists at a premier fetal surgery program achieved results similar to those published three years previously in a landmark clinical trial that established a new standard of care for prenatal repair of this birth defect.
Specialists from the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) published their findings online August 15 in Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy. The single-center results comprised the largest series reported since ...