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Japanese scientists have improved long-term memory in subjects by activating histamine in the brain, discovery that could help unveil the mechanism of memory and to develop drugs to treat the disease. Alzheimer.
The study conducted by a team of researchers, composed of scientists from the University of Hokkaido and the University of Tokyo, was published in Biological Psychiatry, the official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, January 8th.
Over time, memories fade slowly and are eventually forgotten. However, it is thought that traces of them remain in the brain.
Histamine, a substance released during allergic reactions, is also involved in learning and memory, as well as in sleep and wakefulness.
As antihistamine drugs reduce memory performance, it is thought that if the central nervous system that releases and receives histamine, which acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain, can be sufficiently activated, forgotten memories can be recovered.
The study team therefore experimentally investigated how the histamine enhancing drug affected memory performance in mice and humans.
In experiments on mice, scientists placed two identical objects in a box with a mouse and then replaced one of them with a different object.
Rodents are used to interesting, by touch and smell, to new objects, which means that if they still remember the objects in the box, they will prefer them. new objects placed.
During a first training session, the mice preferred the new element, but after more than three days, they became unable to distinguish between the two.
However, after receiving the drug that stimulates histamine in the nervous system, the mice approached the new object even a month after the initial training sessions, which meant that the drug allowed the mice to remember the difference .
The research team has identified that the perirhinal cortex of the brain, which functions during the recognition and memorization of objects, was activated in mice during the release of histamine, which shows that the drug enhancing histamine improves long-term memory.
Based on the results of experiments on mice, the team examined whether the same type of drug could promote memory recovery in humans.
The experimental design was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial of 38 subjects.
The team asked male and female participants to take histamine-activating drugs and tested their memory on images they had seen a week before.
Those who had taken the histamine boosting drug were able to remember images much more easily, with a success rate several percentage points higher than those in the group who did not take any medication.
The correct answer rate is especially improved for issues of a higher difficulty level.
The effect of the drug differed among the research participants as well as the difficulty level of the question in the experiment, said the team.
"Although the results of the study do not immediately apply to memory recovery in humans, this could lead to the development of a drug for the treatment of cancer." Alzheimer's disease and other diseases, "said Hiroshi Nomura, senior lecturer in pharmacy at Hokkaido University and member of the study team. .
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