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news.Researchers at the University of California have found that a class of drugs known as ampakines can reverse age-related memory decline in an animal model.
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The researchers reported in The Journal of Neurophysiology that using two ampakine drugs, which are currently in preclinical development by Cortex Pharmaceuticals, reversed age-related declines in cognitive functions in old rats, returning their cognitive ability to that seen in young rats.
The authors attributed this effect to the ability of ampakine drugs to increase endogenous brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the neurons in the brains of older rats.
“This is a significant discovery because these results indicate the exciting possibility that ampakine compounds could be used to treat learning and memory loss associated with normal aging,” said Dr Christine Gall of the University of California and a lead investigator in the study.
According to Cortex, the up-regulation of BDNF with these drugs is a significant finding not only for restoring memory declines as a result of aging, but also for other neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease, fragile X, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, where elevation of BDNF may produce disease modifying effects in the patient populations.