Aminopropylcarbazole – a cure for senile senility?
Nerve cells are still recoveringChemPort.Ru
Thomas R. Insel, director of the US National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the research of neuroscientists from Dallas, notes that their work is an amazing demonstration of a treatment that prevents age-related deterioration of the ability of laboratory animals to perceive and learn.
The research team, led by biochemists Steven L. McKnight and Andrew A. Pieper, conducted a screening of the chemical library of the medical center in search of a compound that could restore the ability of hippocampal neurons (this is part of the limbic system of the brain, which is involved in the mechanisms of emotion formation and the transition of short-term memory into long-term memory) to restore. The study was conducted on laboratory mice genetically modified in such a way that they simply lacked the ability to restore hippocampal neurons. Obviously, the functions of the hippocampus suggest that the growth of neurons in this part of the brain is very important for memory and learning.
Having tested more than a thousand chemical compounds on laboratory mice, McKnight and his co-authors found that there was a possibility of forced neurogenesis (at least in the body of mice), the growing neurons turned out to be completely viable. The most active neurogenesis is promoted by aminopropyl carbazole, to which the researchers attributed the code P7C3.
After the experiments on mice, it was the turn of laboratory rats. Piper states that aging rats, whose neurogenesis in the body is slowed down, usually have poor memory and poor learning ability. However, in old rodents who underwent a course of taking P7C3, there was a significant growth of neurons; animals after taking P7C3 were characterized by better memory and greater learning ability than individuals from the control group.
The researchers are confident that the new drug, which is used orally and does not cause side effects in rats and mice, not only promotes the generation of new hippocampal nerve cells, but also reduces the likelihood of apoptosis (genetically programmed cell death, which leads to a "neat" disassembly and removal of cells) of neurons occurring before they are combined with a common the system of nerve cells of the brain.
William S. Messer Jr., a pharmacologist in the treatment of neurological disorders from the University of Toledo, notes that increased neurogenesis in the human brain can help in the fight against depression, while lowering the level of cell death may be useful for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as, for example, Alzheimer's disease.
Messer notes that the mechanism of action of P7C3 has not yet been definitively clarified. McKnight and Piper suggest that the mechanism of action should resemble the influence of two structurally similar P7C3, although less effective compounds that feed neurons – the antihistamine drug Dimebon and brominated carbazole, manufactured by Serono Pharmaceuticals.
Source: Andrew A. Pieper et al., Discovery of a Proneurogenic, Neuroprotective Chemical // Cell, Volume 142, Issue 1, 39-51, 9 July 2010
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