In the relatively short timespan of just a few hundred years we have seen a doubling of lifespan. But sadly increase in mindspan has not kept pace, so that whilst we are now living well into our eighties, nineties, and even beyond, and with death rates from most major chronic disease falling, Alzheimer’s disease remains one of the only causes of death that has increased by as much as 66% over the last decade, making it one of the most pressing public health problems in the world to-day.

This is highlighted by the facts showing individuals over 85 years of age now comprise the fastest growing segment of our society, so that one in every two 85-year-olds living in an industrialised country can expect to suffer with dementia.

However, the good news comes from a recent human study by researchers at the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago which demonstrated a 50% slower cognitive decline in those with the highest gene expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) compared with those with the lowest. These results suggest that BDNF may play a key role in reduction of Alzheimer’s disease pathology by building cognitive reserve and cognitive enhancement, and raises the possibility that this devastating disease may be slowed, halted or even reversed by BDNF-enhancing and HDAC2-inhibiting convenient dietary modification.

BDNF – KEY TO COGNITIVE RESERVE, BRAIN PLASTICITY AND COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT

Hailed as a major breakthrough in dementia research, the Rush University Study published in the 27 January,2016 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of The American Academy of Neurology demonstrated that people with higher amounts of protein from the BDNF gene had significantly slower decline in their memory and thinking abilities than those with lower amounts of this protein, and this relationship was strongest among people with the most signs of Alzheimer’s disease pathology, senile amyloid plaques and tangles in their brains.

Dr Aron S. Buchman, lead author and a member of The American Academy of Neurology said, ”This suggests that a higher level of protein from BDNF gene expression may provide a buffer, or reserve for the brain and protect it against the effects of the plaques and tangles that form in the brain as a part of Alzheimer’s disease.”

For the study, 535 people with an average age of 81 were followed until death, for an average of 6 years. They took yearly tests of their thinking and memory skills, and after death, a neurologist reviewed their records and determined whether they had dementia, mild cognitive impairment or no thinking and memory problems. Autopsies were conducted on their brains after death and BDNF protein levels were measured. The effect of AD pathology (plaques and tangles) in the brain on cognitive decline was significantly reduced for people with high levels of BDNF.

The results of this study demonstrate that strategies which can increase brain BDNF protein levels may now offer our best prospect of protecting the brain against memory and cognitive decline into old age, even in the presence of considerable AD pathology.

RECOVERY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY - CHROMATIN REMODELLING

Slowing the rate of cognitive decline is indeed, a major advance in our fight against the increasing burden of Alzheimer’s disease, but what if we could actually reverse the effects of AD and recover memories considered lost? Research currently in progress by neurologists and neuroscientists at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the European Neuroscience Institute, Medical School University of Goettingen raise the possibility of success.

MIT scientists led by Dr. Li-Huei Tsai have evidence using an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that memories of things learned may still be stored in the brain but the overproduction of a specific enzyme histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) blocks access to those memories. They were able to stop this abnormal increase of HDAC2 in mice with evidence of AD and restore access to the memory archive. But do these findings have relevance to people with AD?

To address this question Dr.Tsai and her team compared HDAC2 levels in post-mortem brains from people without AD and those with mild to severe AD pathology. They found a 30 to 50 per cent increase in HDAC2 levels of the hippocampus and cortex, two areas of the brain responsible for learning and memory functions. HDAC2 accumulation was visible at the beginning of AD development, implicating it as an early event in the progression of AD. Dr.Tsai commented that people with dementia may forget things but it does not mean that the memory is erased. She added that therapies that inhibit HDAC2 could repair this neural network necessary for the retrieval of some memories. “Even if patients lost a lot of memory, it may be reversible to some extent”, said Dr.Tsai.

BDNF ENHANCEMENT and HDAC2 INHIBITOR – COULD DIETARY FIBRE BE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL AGEING?

Findings from a new study by researchers at Sydney University’s Westmead Institute for Medical Research led by Professor Bamini Gopinath, that followed the diet of 1,609 adults aged 49 years and older for 10 years, found that those whose diet had the highest level of indigestible fibre had an 80% likelihood of ageing successfully, defined as fully-functional and disease-free.

This type of dietary fibre passes undigested to the large intestine where it is fermented by resident health-promoting bacteria, producing short-chain fatty acids, particularly butyrate. Over a decade of working with this fibre by researchers at the Australian NEUROLEX medical research company in conjunction with local and overseas university studies, has identified this safe, natural, soluble vegetable fibre, approved by both USFDA and ANZFA as a food ingredient and known as NEUROLEX optimised for enhanced butyrate levels.

Butyrate is unique in safely enhancing levels of brain and serum BDNF and as well as a natural HDAC2 inhibitor. Further details of this science is available to medical specialists, practitioners, researchers and the health-conscious public, from Dr Strong 02 9531 8585 Mob 0418 413657 or Email: maxwellstrongresearch@gmail.com

www.neurolex.com.au

BUILDING MINDSPAN (COGNITIVE RESERVE)

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