A fragment of the hormone Klotho, linked to longevity, has shown its effectiveness in improving spatial and working memory and boosting neurons, according to the results of a study published in the medical journal Cell Reports. These conclusions were obtained on mice that saw their condition improve over several weeks. This injection would also have reversed cognitive and motor deficits in rodents suffering from neuropathologies.
Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco in the United States treated young and old mice for four days with a fragment of the Klotho hormone.
Improve mouse memory
This protocol resulted in a significant and lasting improvement in their spatial and working memory for two weeks after treatment. For the old mice, a single bite also boosted their spatial and working memory two days later.
The researchers also observed that this hormone had stopped motor and cognitive deficits for several days in mice genetically modified to develop Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s.
“These results suggest that treatment with a fragment of Klotho can improve brain function throughout life and could represent a new therapeutic strategy against diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and the Parkinson diseasetoday incurable,” said Dena Dubal, assistant professor of neurology and dean of the chair of aging and neurodegenerative diseases at the University of California at San Francisco.
“With the aging population, cognitive dysfunctions and lack of mobility now represent our greatest biomedical challenges against which there are not really effective treatments,” she says.
While the results of this study are encouraging, clinical studies are needed to determine the safety and efficacy of this hormone in humans.
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