Scientists have discovered a substance extracted from everyday herbs that has effectively boosted memory and increased brain mass in mice, potentially paving the way for novel therapies for Alzheimer's disease.
A group from The Scripps Research Institute located in the United States focused on developing a derivative of carnosic acid, which is a compound present in both rosemary and sage.
They created a more stable compound named diAcCA and subsequently utilized it to treat mice genetically altered to exhibit Alzheimer’s-like conditions over a period of three months.
According to the research published in the journal, the mice administered with the novel medication exhibited enhanced cognitive functions including better learning and memory capabilities along with an increased number of synapses—these being the points at which nerve cells interact and transmit signals to one another. Antioxidants .
The reduction in synapses has a strong connection with decreased cognition.
The mice exhibited reduced accumulation of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which are two detrimental proteins characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease in humans.
Seventy percent of dementia cases are due to Alzheimer's disease.
It poses a significant and growing burden across Europe, affecting approximately 7 million people today, with numbers projected to double to 14 million by 2030 due to its ageing population.
“By combating inflammation and oxidative stress with this diAcCA compound, we actually increased the number of synapses in the brain,” Stuart Lipton, a professor at Scripps Research and one of the study’s authors, said in a statement.
“We also took down other misfolded or aggregated proteins such as phosphorylated-tau and amyloid-β, which are thought to trigger Alzheimer’s disease and serve as biomarkers of the disease process,” he added.
An anti-oxydant molecule
Carnosic acid is an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory but it has a very short shelf-life, while the diAcCA can be taken orally before being converted into carnosic acid in the stomach and entering the bloodstream.
The amount in the blood of the test mice was 20 per cent higher with the new method compared to usual ingestion of carnosic acid.
“We did multiple different tests of memory, and they were all improved with the drug,” Lipton said.
“And it didn’t just slow down the decline; it improved virtually back to normal,” he added.
The researchers added that the mice tolerated diAcCA well.