07 May,2009 01:46 PM IST | | PTI
In a significant breakthrough, scientists claim to have successfully reversed the effects of Alzheimer's disease with experimental drugs. An international team has discovered the drugs target and boost the function of a newly pinpointed gene involved in the brain's memory formation, thereby helping to restore long- term memory, the 'Nature' journal reported.
"It brings about long-lasting changes in how other genes are expressed, which is probably necessary to increase numbers of synapses and restructure neural circuits, thereby enhancing memory.
"To our knowledge, HDAC inhibitors have not been used to treat Alzheimer's disease or dementia. But now that we know that inhibiting HDAC2 has the potential to boost synaptic plasticity, synapse formation and memory formation," lead scientist Prof Li-Huei Tsai said.
For their research, the team applied the treatment with HDAC inhibitors drugs on laboratory rodents and found that the treatment helped restore long-term memory and improve learning for new tasks. They reshape the DNA scaffolding that supports and controls expression of genes in the brain, the study found.
The Alzheimer's gene the drugs act upon, histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2), regulates the expression of a plethora of genes implicated in plasticity u2014 the brain's ability to change in response to experience u2014 and memory formation. "In the next step, we will develop new HDAC2-selective inhibitors and test the function for human diseases associated with memory impairment to treat neurodegenerative diseases," Prof Tsai said.
