New Drug Blocks Stress Hormone, Improving Memory in Elderly Mice
Lab Mouse Wikimedia Commons/Rama Scottish researchers may have found a key to preventing senior moments, by blocking a stress hormone that interferes with memory. The treatment works surprisingly fast in mice, improving their memory within a few days, and the researchers say it might be a good treatment for elderly people who want to stay sharp. They want to start human trials soon. Researchers are always coming up with memory-enhancing methods, including new drugs, brain stimulation and even radiation treatment. So far, therapies that either enhance memory-boosting molecules or block memory-inhibiting ones seem the most effective and scalable (it seems unlikely that legions of AARP members would be willing to wear electrode-bearing thinking caps, for instance). In the latest study, scientists suppressed an enzyme involved in the production of stress hormones. The enzyme, 11beta-HSD1, is involved in making glucocorticoids, which moderate our response to stress. They have a detrimental effect on the...