Alzheimer’s BREAKTHROUGH: Revolutionary treatment could RESTORE lost memories
SCIENTISTS have discovered a way to retrieve memories of Alzheimer’s sufferers which were thought to be permanently lost.
Alzheimer’s BREAKTHROUGH: Revolutionary treatment could RESTORE lost memories
Experts are now hopeful that memories can be rediscovered optogenically – with the use of lights – after testing in mice proved successful.
It had been believed that the memories were lost forever, but researchers now think that the recall mechanisms may just be damaged by the disease.
To test their theory, scientists took two sets of mice – healthy ones and others given a similar disease to Alzheimer’s.
Parts of the mice’s brains were engineered to glow yellow to signify memory storage and red when it is trying to recall memories.
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Both sets of mice were presented a scent of lemon and were given an electric shock when they smelt it so that the memories were associated.
One week later, the mice were given a smell of lemon – the healthy mice’s brains overlapped with a yellow and red glow, meaning that they were fearful that an electric shock was coming.
The findings could revolutionise Alzheimer's treatment
But the brains of the diseased mice were indifferent showing that they were unaware of the electric shock previously.
The team, led by Christine Denny of Columbia University, then used fibre optic cables to shine a blue laser into the diseased mice’s brains to “reactivate” the memory and the rodents were once again fearful when they smelt the lemons.
The research could revolutionise Alzheimer’s disease treatments, although the scientists are wary that humans lose more neurons through the disease, and it remains to be seen whether the treatment is as successful in people.
However, Ralph Martins at Edith Cowan University in Australia told New Scientist that "it has the potential to lead to novel drug development to help with regaining memories."