A shortage of the protein RbAp48 appears to impair our ability to remember things as we age, researchers in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine. And boosting levels of RbAP48
in aging brains can reverse memory loss, at least in mice, they say. The protein was studied in an area of the brain that is generally unaffected by Alzheimer’s disease. The research “reinforces the emerging idea that Alzheimer’s disease and aging are separate entities,” says , a neurologist at Columbia University and one of the study’s authors. It also suggests that, eventually, it should be possible to treat memory loss that’s not related to Alzheimer’s. Small and a team that included Nobel Laureate discovered the protein after studying postmortem brains from eight people ranging in age from 33 to 88. The scientists focused on one specific region of the hippocampus, a structure that’s highly involved in memory.
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