Two separate studies, both performed in mice, are bringing insights into ways to combat memory loss in humans.
Memory loss, in conditions like Alzheimer's disease, is linked to activity in brain cells, namely through receptors for the hormone serotonin. It is also known that sleep deprivation affects memory, making it difficult to retrieve information in the brain.
Research from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, found that two medications (roflumilast and vardenafil) used for asthma and erectile dysfunction respectively, restored social and spatial memories in sleep-deprived mice.
The study (presented for the first time last month at the FENS Forum 2024), indicate promising directions for developing treatments for human memory loss, both in neurodegenerative diseases and sleep deprivation.
Richard Roche, at EARA member Maynooth University, Ireland and chair of the FENS Forum communication committee, who was not involved in the research, said: “This research shows that social and spatial memories seemingly lost through sleep-deprivation can be recovered.”
Meanwhile, US researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, and the University of Cambridge, UK, think that molecules similar to serotonin, such as lorcaserin, could improve memory in Alzheimer’s patients.
Using genetically altered mice to mimic human mutations in a serotonin receptor gene, often found in individuals with memory loss, the researchers observed significant memory deficits in the mice with these mutations.
Moreover, mice presenting Alzheimer’s disease as well as these mutations had changes in serotonin function, something that could be considered in future treatments for this degenerative disease.
This research was published in Science Advances.