Brought back lost memories in mice with Alzheimer’s

Scientists from the USA and Japan managed to restore “lost” memories in experimental animals (mice), which suffered from loss of memory Alzheimer’s. The reset of memory was achieved thanks to the activation of brain cells with light, via the technique of οπτογενετικής.
The technique and the utilization
The οπτογενετική allows the manipulation of the genes of the nerve cells, so that neurons are made sensitive to blue light, via optical fiber into the brain. Activated so appropriate brain cells, in order to develop new neural connections and to “remember”.
The achievement may in the future be exploited in the case of patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as creates a hope that it may be possible to reset the memory of them, at least in the early stages of the disease.
The experiments made by researchers of the University of MIT, USA, and the japanese Institute for Science of the Brain, RIKEN, headed by the nobel laureate (1987) professor of biology and neuroscience Σουσούμου Τονεγκάβα, director of the joint Centre RIKEN-MIT for the Genetics of Neural Circuits and made the relevant publication in the journal “Nature”.
The disease and the recovery
The researchers pointed out that in the early stages of Alzheimer’s patients are often unable to recall recent events. The new study shows that it’s likely that the respective memories are even stored in the brain, the patient does not have access to them a few days after. But maybe in the future enable the artificial activation of these “lost” memories, so that, at least partly, the patients to regain their memory. “The main thing we showed is that even if a memory seems to be lost, in fact there’s even. It’s just a matter of how you will withdraw it one,” said the Τονεγκάβα.
The same research group has already shown in the past that it is possible to intervene in the neural fingerprints of memory in the hippocampus of the brain, “planting” false memories, changing the emotional “load” of a memory and, now, activating a forgotten memory. The experiments of the new study were made with two groups of mice. One was healthy and the other consisted of animals that had been genetically modified to exhibit amnesia type of Alzheimer’s. When subjected to the same electric shock that caused fear, only the first seemed to remember the painful experience after hours. However, after the appropriate manipulation of the neurons of mice with Alzheimer’s disease through the method of οπτογενετικής, and they no longer remembered the painful experience of after hours, in other words, the relative memory was retracted from oblivion and with it the fear.
At present, the οπτογενετική, if and accurate technique, it is considered prohibitively invasive for use in humans. So, as the Τονεγκάβα, seek out an alternative acceptable method, which enables or disables the cells deep in the human brain. “Alzheimer’s disease early stage maybe can be remedied in the future, if you develop a new technology that meets the necessary standards of ethics and safety for their people,” he stressed.