[ad_1]
Researchers have found that a particular protein can be used as a brain marker to indicate whether emotional memories can be altered or forgotten. This is an animal study, but the researchers hope the results will eventually help people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to resume a more balanced life. This work is presented at the ECNP conference in Lisbon.
Scientists know that long-term memories can be divided into two types: factual memory, where we can remember things such as names, places, events, etc., and a kind of instinctive memory where we remember ourselves. remember things like emotions and skills. Scientists have come to believe that these emotional memories can be altered, possibly helping to treat the trauma underlying PTSD. In 2004, groundbreaking work by scientists in New York[1] showed that if animals were treated with the beta-blocker propranolol, it allowed them to forget about a learned trauma. However, the results were at times difficult to reproduce, leading to doubts as to whether the memories were editable at all.
Today, scientists at the University of Cambridge have shown that the presence of a particular protein – the “stem” protein, which acts as a scaffold for receptors that determine the strength of connections between neurons – determines whether memories may be altered in animals treated with propranolol. . If this protein is degraded, then memories become modifiable.[2] However, if this protein is present, it shows that the memories were not degradable, thus explaining why propranolol does not always produce amnesia.
Principal Investigator Dr Amy Milton said:
“We trained rats to associate a clicker with a slight electric shock, to create a memory of fear, similar to how Pavlov conditioned dogs over a hundred years ago. We then reminded the rats of this memory (“reactivated memory”) by introducing the clicker alone, and immediately after this reminder we injected the beta-blocker propranolol. However, we did not see the amnesia that had been previously reported in the literature following this intervention. We then used the presence of the stem protein to determine if the memories had become unstable in the first place, and found that they did not.
“This means that the stem protein can be used as a biomarker for malleable memory. We don’t yet know if it’s directly involved in memory degradation, or if it’s a byproduct of a deeper reaction. What it does is give us a path, a key to one of the first doors to understanding the biochemistry of memory.
“These are really complex mechanisms, and we have to keep in mind that this is animal labor; human brains are similar, but much more complex. We don’t see this leading to the kind of situation shown in the movies, like for example “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, where the protagonists can choose which memories to erase. But we hope that over time we will be able to identify the factors that make memories modifiable in animals and translate them in human patients. Ultimately, we hope to reduce the unconscious impact of traumatic emotional memories, the kind of trauma that can ruin the lives of people with PTSD. In ancient Greek legend, they spoke of a drug, Nepentha, which made them forget painful memories. We hope this is a step on the road to treatment.
Commenting, Dr Livia de Picker, University of Antwerp, said:
“It’s an interesting job. Undoing what makes a memory is extremely difficult, and this work brings us one step closer to understanding how memories are preserved and changed. There is a long way to go in this process, and of course, transferring these steps to humans will be difficult. But it gives us some hope that we can eventually help people who suffer from memories of traumatic stress. “
Remarks
- Debiec & LeDoux, 2004
- See Lee et al., 2008, DOI: 10.1126 / science.1150541
This work is presented at the 34th ECNP Annual Conference, which takes place in Lisbon and online from October 2-5, 2021. The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology is the leading European organization working in the field of applied neurosciences.
[ad_2]
Source link
