A new study published in the open-access journal eLife has found that an experimental drug helped reverse age-related mental and memory declines in mice.
The drug, called ISRIB (integrated stress response inhibitor), restored cognitive function in older mice and rejuvenated their brain and immune cells.
ISRIB was discovered by the Walter lab at the University of California-San Francisco through a semi-automated screening of a large library of small molecules.
Susanna Rosi, professor at UCSF and director of Neurocognitive Research, Brain and Spinal Injury Center, said, “ISRIB’s extremely rapid effects show for the first time that a significant component of age-related cognitive losses may be caused by a kind of reversible physiological ‘blockage’ rather than more permanent degradation.”
Although the findings are promising, the results derived from animal studies are not the same in humans.
ISRIB would have to undergo multiple human trials to gain FDA approval and to be used in people.
Peter Walter, a molecular biologist and biochemist and professor at the UCSF, said the findings indicate that “older brains do not permanently lose cognitive abilities but that they are dormant or blocked by a vicious cycle of cellular stress.”
ISRIB had previously been used to study traumatic brain injury (TBI). A 2017 study, which was conducted on mice, showed the drug could reverse TBI-induced learning and memory problems.
In the current study, the researchers trained older mice to escape a watery maze by finding a hidden platform, a task that is typically hard for aged animals.
However, animals who received ISRIB over a 3-day training process were able to complete the task as effectively as younger mice.
The author said, “The test subjects also performed much better than mice of the same age who did not receive the drug.” The article originally appeared on Medscape Medical News.
