Memory transplantation
Biologists for the first time "transplanted memories" using RNA
Daria Zagorskaya, Vesti
Any event in the life of higher animals, including humans, leaves its imprint in his memory, or rather a physical trace in protoplasm. In particular, the carriers of this information are RNA molecules that perform a lot of different functions, including the regulation of many cellular processes.
For this reason, a team of biologists from the University of California at Los Angeles, led by David Glanzman, chose the RNA molecule for their experiments with memory transfer between living beings. And the object of their research were individuals of the Aplysia marine mollusk of the species Aplysia californica. Sometimes they are also called sea hares.
To begin with, scientists needed to form some kind of persistent memory in one group of animals. The mollusks eventually received five electric shocks (weak, but unpleasant) with an interval of 20 minutes. The experiment was repeated five hours later. An electric shock strengthens the defensive reflex of the mollusk. Therefore, after a while, in response to even light tapping, a pronounced contraction of the body muscles was observed in the animals subjected to the test.
Scientists call this type of training "sensitization". The duration of the new defensive reaction averaged 50 seconds. At the same time, in the control group of mollusks that had never encountered an electric current, a contraction of the body was observed for only one second.
At the next stage, the researchers extracted RNA aplysia from the nervous system of trained and untrained aplysia and introduced them to two other groups of mollusks, each of which had eight individuals. Aplysia that received the RNA of electrocuted relatives had a protective reaction lasting 40 seconds. As expected, nothing like this happened in the control group.
Leaving the animals alone, the biologists continued their experiments in Petri dishes. They added the RNA of the two original groups of mollusks to sensory and motor neurons isolated from the bodies of untrained aplysia.
It is known that the effect of an electric current makes sensory neurons more excitable (motor neurons "don't care"). Scientists have shown that the proximity of sensory neurons with the RNA of "electrocuted" mollusks led to their increased excitability. But motor neurons in a similar company did not show any changes.
But "transplanting memories" was not the ultimate goal for biologists. In neuroscience, it has long been assumed that memories are stored in synapses, that is, at the points of contact of two neurons. Glantzman and some of his colleagues held a different opinion: they believed that memories were actually stored in the nuclei of nerve cells. In experiments with aplysia, the authors of the study were looking for evidence of their rightness.
"If memories were stored in synapses, then our experiment would simply not work," Glanzman says in a university press release, adding that marine mollusks are an excellent model for studying the brain and memory.
To date, according to the results of the study, the authors have published an article in the publication eNeuro and continue their work.
In the future, they want to prove that the use of RNA can be enough to fight Alzheimer's disease, and to treat people with traumatized memories.
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