Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health
Study with Round Worms Suggests Memory Can Be
Preserved by Dietary Restriction
Scientist hope to use the system to identify new
drugs and treatments for age-related cognitive decline
May 25, 2010 - If you lived longer, would you still
remember everything? It depends. Two methods of extending life span have
very different effects on memory performance and decline with age,
researchers at Princeton University have shown in a study publishing
next week in the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology.
While the nematode C. elegans (round worm) is
already well known for its utility in longevity research, previously it
was not known how the memory of C. elegans compares with that of other
animals, or whether longevity treatments could improve learning and
memory.
To answer these questions, Amanda Kauffman and
colleagues, of Coleen Murphy's lab at Princeton, designed new tests of
learning and memory in C. elegans, then used these tests to identify the
necessary components of learning, short-term memory, and long-term
memory.
They found that the molecules required for learning
and memory appear to be conserved from C. elegans to mammals, suggesting
that the basic mechanisms underlying learning and memory are ancient.
The authors also determined how each of the
behaviors declines with age, and tested the effects of two known
regulators of longevity - dietary restriction and reduced Insulin/IGF-1
signaling - on these declines.
Surprisingly, very different effects on memory were
achieved with the two longevity treatments: dietary restriction impaired
memory in early adulthood but maintained memory with age, while reduced
Insulin/IGF-1 signaling improved early adult memory performance but
failed to preserve it with age.
These results suggest not only that longevity
treatment could help preserve cognitive function with age, but also that
different longevity treatments might have very different effects on such
declines.
"Since one of the most devastating age-related
declines is the loss of memory, it is exciting that we now can use C.
elegans as a model to understand not only longevity but also memory
function," says Murphy.
"We hope to use the system now to identify new
drugs and treatments for age-related cognitive decline. Maybe targeting
more than one longevity pathway would be the right approach."
This work was supported by the Sloan Fellows
Program; Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences; Keck Scholars Program;
McKnight Scholars Program; and National Institutes of Health R01 grant.
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis,
decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
>>
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