Good news from BBC to share with you :
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Genes help brain recapture youth
As the brain ages, many cells shrink but few die
Withered brain cells could bloom again using gene therapy
techniques to restore them to their former glory,
scientists
have said.
The finding could help doctors develop new therapies for
diseases such as Alzheimer's, which causes a breakdown in
brain function.
It also reinforces scientists understanding of how the
brain
works and suggests that old brain cells do not die, they
simply shrivel.
The technique has been shown to restore the brain cells
in
monkeys - although an ongoing study is examining whether
it
reinvigorates memory and thinking - and the researchers
are
seeking permission to test it on patients with
Alzheimer's
disease.
Cells survive
Dr Mark Tuszynski, of the University of California, San
Diego, led the study and explained how his team sees the
ageing process of the brain.
"We've all heard the dogma
that we lose 10,000 neurones
(brain cells) a day after the age
of 20," he said. "Well, that is
false. That doesn't happen."
A count of cells in the cortex - a
key area in the brain involved in
thinking - showed that very few
were lost with age, he said.
However, cells in the part
known as the basal forebrain,
were dramatically affected by
age and had stopped producing
certain chemicals - a change that affects thinking
ability in the cortex.
"These cells are like the air traffic controllers of the
brain," Dr
Tuszynski said.
The cells were not dead, however, and when genes that
make
nerve growth factor (NGF) - an essential chemical found
in
the brain - were injected into the brain, they were
revived.
Human tests next
The researchers used eight monkeys with an average age of
23 - the monkey equivalent of the late 60s to 70s in
humans.
The researchers inserted the NGF gene into skin cells and
then injected the modified cells into the front of the
monkeys'
brains. Four monkeys got injections of skin cells without
the
gene.
"We restored the number of cells we could detect to about
92% of normal for a young monkey and size of the cells
was
restored to within 3%," Dr Tuszynski said.
The application of this technique to Alzheimer's - which
destroys chemical messengers used by the cells of the
brain
to communicate with each other - will need to be tested
in
humans, as animals do not suffer the disease in the same
way.
The researchers have already applied to the US Food and
Drug Administration for permission to run human trials,
although it would be a number of years before they could
tell
if the treatment was effective.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the
National
Academy of Sciences journal.
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+----| Joao Paulo de Carvalho |------ +
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+--------| Salvador-Bahia-Brazil |------+
