A Small Molecule for a Healthy Old Brain
By counteracting cellular stress in the brain, the small molecule ISRIB prevents cognitive decline in mice.
Brain says no
For most of us, the winter of old age is a period of unwanted changes. While the extent of those changes is different for each of us — due to, among others, genetics, metabolism, lifestyle, and environment — there are general trends.
Our immune function declines, the risk for cancer increases, muscle disappears or becomes harder to maintain, joints lose flexibility and integrity, memory is spottier than we remember it to be (I think). Even our microbiome, our skin, and body shape change.
But perhaps the scariest changes occur in our brains.
Dementia is a catch-all term that encompasses several conditions correlated with increasing age. These conditions are characterized by a progressive deterioration of cognitive capacities, such as memory and speech. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for over half of all cases.
There is no cure. Around fifty million people are affected across the globe, a number that is projected to triple over the coming decades as the demographic group of the elderly is growing quickly.
