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Conditions such as depression can have a serious effect on the life of an individual and the quality of life in the long run. If that were not enough, they are also badociated with cognitive defects in life later. Memory loss and impairment are among the most common types of sequelae of mental health problems. Unfortunately, the options for treating or treating them are currently limited.
However, a group of researchers from the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada, may have developed a possible therapy for this form of memory loss. This revolves around the rebirth of brain cells that have become strongly related to mood and memory deficits in depression.
In addition, these cells can also play a role in more specific areas memory-related diseases such as Alzheimer's diseasethe CAMH team also proposes that their new treatment be applied to such patients in the future.
Neurotransmitters and neurological conditions
The cells in question are those involved in the use of the neurotransmitter, gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA), in the brain. It is increasingly likely that cell receptors that bind to GABA become depleted or dysfunctional under various neurological conditions. As GABAergic transmission (or cells activated as a result of GABA receptor activation) plays a role in the emotional and cognitive processing of the brain, it has become a topic of interest to mental health researchers .
The role of GABA in mental health, status and function has led to many recommendations for treatment with drugs which enhance the activation of GABA receptors (in particular subtype A (GABA-A)). They include benzodiazepines (BZDs), which have been shown to be effective in disorders involving mood-related symptoms.
Depending on their pharmaceutical profile, BZDs may also stimulate memory. However, they were found to cause short-term memory loss instead. This may be due to the overly general effect on GABA-A receptors, which may also have a cost for GABA-B functions.
The GABA-A receptor has several binding sites for a variety of different compounds, including BZDs, some anesthetics, steroids and GABA itself. (Source: David M. Lovinger / Wikimedia Commons)
CAMH researchers were aware, thanks to the previous research resultsa more refined manipulation of GABA-A could improve (or restore) memory performance.
As part of this study, they developed four new BZD derivatives called imidazobenzodiazepines (IBZDs) and tested them in a depressed mouse (which involves causing the symptoms of the disease by stress), along with diazepam BZD (DZP) well studied, used as a control. .
The team reported that two of their IBZDs – GL-II-73 and GL-II-75 – exhibited significant reversals of stress and age-induced work-related memory deficits in these mice. , compared to the DZP. The two most effective IBZDs also showed some antidepressant effects in this study, while the DZP did nothing more than cause anxiolytic effects.
This research was published in a January 2019 issue of the journal, Molecular Neuropsychiatry.
Meanwhile, CAMH scientists have studied in more detail their potential new therapeutic molecules. Their more recent experiments have apparently shown animals designed to exhibit preclinical age-related memory loss have shown improvements in task performance of up to 80% in response to IBZD treatment. These effects would have persisted up to two months with the daily administration of the compounds.
IBZD and the brain
Brain tissue samples taken from these experimental mice also found that this treatment was beneficial for the individual cells badociated with GABA-A activation. They find the appearance of the same cells in younger animals. This could strengthen and maintain the neural "circuits" that these cells form in vivo to perform functions related to memory, cognition and mood.
The CAMH team will now present its findings to the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2019, which began yesterday (February 14, 2019) and will continue until February 17, 2019.
This can help determine whether they can get the support they need to test new IBZDs at the next clinical stage or not. This, in turn, could lead to a new treatment that helps patients with mental illness or certain neurological conditions manage the long-term effects of their disorders.
Top Image: A breakthrough revealed new molecules that could potentially reverse some of the side effects of depression, such as memory loss. (Source: Pixabay)
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