Aging, Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues / 03.12.2020
Algernon? Scientists Use Drug to Reverse Memory Loss in Mice
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_56112" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Rosi[/caption]
Susanna Rosi, Ph.D.
Lewis and Ruth Cozen Chair II
Professor, Brain and Spinal Injury Center
Weill Institute for Neuroscience
Kavli Institute of Fundamental Neuroscience
Departments of Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science,
Neurological Surgery
University of California San Francisco
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Everybody has experienced a “senior moment” forgetting where the car keys are, or where you put your glasses. These forgetful moments are not always indicative of a disease, but rather can be a consequence of normal aging. Normal aging is associated with decline of cognitive abilities, such as memory, spatial orientation, problem solving and executive functioning. Investigating what changes happen in the brain with age, can help us to understand why these ‘senior moments’ occur. When we understand what causes these moments, we can design therapeutics with the hopes of preventing or reversing them.
With increased life expectancy age-associatedmemory decline becomes a growing concern.
We wanted to investigate
(i) What causes memory decline with age?
(ii) Are there ways to reverse it?
Dr. Rosi[/caption]
Susanna Rosi, Ph.D.
Lewis and Ruth Cozen Chair II
Professor, Brain and Spinal Injury Center
Weill Institute for Neuroscience
Kavli Institute of Fundamental Neuroscience
Departments of Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science,
Neurological Surgery
University of California San Francisco
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Everybody has experienced a “senior moment” forgetting where the car keys are, or where you put your glasses. These forgetful moments are not always indicative of a disease, but rather can be a consequence of normal aging. Normal aging is associated with decline of cognitive abilities, such as memory, spatial orientation, problem solving and executive functioning. Investigating what changes happen in the brain with age, can help us to understand why these ‘senior moments’ occur. When we understand what causes these moments, we can design therapeutics with the hopes of preventing or reversing them.
With increased life expectancy age-associatedmemory decline becomes a growing concern.
We wanted to investigate
(i) What causes memory decline with age?
(ii) Are there ways to reverse it?
Dr. Mahncke[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com: What is heart failure?
Response: Heart failure – sometimes called congestive heart failure or congestive cardiac failure – is when the heart cannot pump sufficient blood flow to maintain the body’s needs. Common symptoms include excessive tiredness, shortness of breath and swelling particularly in legs. It’s treated with a combination of lifestyle changes, drugs, and devices. An estimated 6.5 million Americans are diagnosed with heart failure, with 960,000 new cases each year, leading some to describe it as reaching epidemic proportions. In older adults, it’s the most common cause of hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge and among the most costly areas of Medicare expenditures.
Dr. Ellingson[/caption]
Jarrod Ellingson PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Anschutz Medical Campus
University of Colorado Denver
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We know that cannabis use is associated with many negative outcomes, but there could be many of reasons for that. For example, socioeconomic factors and peer influences both affect adolescent cannabis use and poorer cognitive functioning. To account for some of those risk factors, we studied nearly 600 sibling pairs with moderate to heavy cannabis use. We found that, as a person uses more cannabis than their sibling, they tend to have worse memory recall than their sibling.
Dr. Jensen[/caption]
Majken K. Jensen, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Nutrition
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health &
Professor in the Department of Public Health
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are highly prevalent conditions. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 50 million people are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias worldwide. Lower apolipoprotein E in plasma is a risk factor for dementia, but the underlying biological mechanisms are not fully understood. Thus, we investigated the role of apolipoprotein E overall and in lipoproteins with distinct metabolic functions in relation to cognitive function and dementia risk..
Dr. Robbins[/caption]
Dr. Rebecca Robbins, PhD MS
Fellow at Brigham & Women's Hospital
and Harvard Medical School
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Sleep difficulties are common among older adults and are associated with cognitive decline. We used data collected over 10 years from a large, nationally representative longitudinal survey of adults over the age of 50 in the U.S. We examined the relationship between specific sleep difficulties and cognitive function over time.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: Our results show that early difficulty falling asleep and early morning awakenings, when experienced "most nights" of the week, were each associated with worse cognitive function. Conversely, reports of waking feeling rested was associated with better cognitive function, over time. 
Dr. Cohen[/caption]
Pieter A. Cohen, MD
Department of Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance
Somerville, Massachusetts
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: There has been increasing interest in the use of over-the-counter supplements to help improve memory and cognitive function. However, prior 
Dr. Nandi[/caption]
Arindam Nandi PhD
Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The motivation for this study comes from a small but growing body of evidence on the potential long-term benefits of vaccines. The recent resurgence of measles outbreaks in several countries which had previously eliminated the virus makes our study additionally relevant. There have been over 1,000 measles cases reported across 28 states in the US so far in 2019, which is the largest number of cases the country has seen in almost 3 decades. Similarly high number of cases have been reported in several European countries in recent years. This study reiterates the importance of vaccination and proves the long-term benefits of the measles vaccine in low- and middle-income countries, which account for a large proportion of global measles cases.
