Author Interviews, Memory / 14.02.2024
Queensland Scientists Demonstrate Enzymatic Release of Fatty Acids Key to Memory Formation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_61330" align="alignleft" width="125"]
Prof. Meunier[/caption]
Prof. Frederic Meunier PhD
Professor and Academic Senior Group/Unit Leader/Supervisor
Queensland Brain Institute and
[caption id="attachment_61329" align="alignleft" width="125"] Dr. Akefe[/caption]
Isaac O Akefe DVM, PhD
Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research
Queensland Brain Institute
The University of Queensland St Lucia
Academy for Medical Education, Medical School
Brisbane QLD Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The brain is the body’s fattiest organ, with fatty compounds called lipids making up 60% of its weight. Fatty acids are the building blocks of a class of lipids called phospholipids.
In our study, we first showed that levels of saturated fatty acids increase in the brain during neuronal communication and long-term memory formation, but we didn’t know what was causing these changes.
Prof. Meunier[/caption]
Prof. Frederic Meunier PhD
Professor and Academic Senior Group/Unit Leader/Supervisor
Queensland Brain Institute and
[caption id="attachment_61329" align="alignleft" width="125"]
Dr. Akefe[/caption]
Isaac O Akefe DVM, PhD
Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research
Queensland Brain Institute
The University of Queensland St Lucia
Academy for Medical Education, Medical School
Brisbane QLD Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The brain is the body’s fattiest organ, with fatty compounds called lipids making up 60% of its weight. Fatty acids are the building blocks of a class of lipids called phospholipids.
In our study, we first showed that levels of saturated fatty acids increase in the brain during neuronal communication and long-term memory formation, but we didn’t know what was causing these changes.
Dr. Launer[/caption]
Lenore J. Launer, Ph.D.
Chief, Laboratory of Epidemiology and Population Sciences
Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Identifying early risk factors and early changes in the brain will have a major impact on future clinical and public health priorities related to the looming epidemic of dementia. Several studies based on older populations suggest mid-life is an important period to start prevention measures. To date control of blood pressure levels has been the most robust and promising candidate to target for prevention of future cognitive impairment. Although several studies have looked at levels of blood pressure and risk for cognitive impairment, it was not known whether trajectories from young adulthood to middle age studies provided additional information about risk. To investigate possible biomarkers of future risk, we chose to examine the association of the mean arterial blood pressure trajectories to indicators of pathology seen on MRI and that are associated with cognition.
We highlight the results of the mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) measure, which is an integrated measure of systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
Response: Cigarette smoking is one of the well-established causes of periodontitis, but the effect of using electronic cigarettes (e-cig), especially its long-term impact on periodontal health, is not yet clearly understood. Considering the increased popularity of e-cig use, especially among teenagers and young adults, and the known effect of high nicotine concentration in e-cigarette products, we conducted this clinical research to see if there were differences in periodontal health between e-cig users, traditional smokers, and nonsmokers. The study consisted of two visits, 6 months apart, where measures of oral and periodontal health were obtained.
Our data showed significantly greater clinical attachment loss in the e-cigarette users and cigarette smokers than in the non-smokers at both study visits. In only e-cigarette users, we observed an over 0.2 mm average increase in the clinical attachment loss after 6 months. 