Young blood makes old mice smarter, says study

Cycling to work linked with large health benefits

PARIS, April 20, (Agencies): Lab tests in which elderly mice were injected with a protein found in human umbilical cord blood have thrown up an intriguing target for keeping the brain healthy into older age, scientists said Wednesday.

The protein of interest, TIMP2, has previously been found to play a role in developing the hippocampus — the part of the brain that enables spatial navigation and processes memories.

TIMP2 is plentiful in the plasma of umbilical cords, but levels of it decline with age.

A team led by Tony Wyss-Coray at Stanford University in California injected ageing mice with TIMP2.

The injections boosted activity in the rodents’ hippocampus, and their learning, memory and ability to adapt to new information all improved, notably in their ability to extract themselves from a lab maze.

TIMP2 — or the brain cells that the protein acts upon — could be useful targets for drugs to fight cognitive decline among the elderly, according to the study, published in the journal Nature.

Outside commentators said the findings were exciting but a hefty dose of caution was needed.

“The study shows that a human protein can reverse cognitive ageing in mice,” said Jennifer Wild, a researcher in clinical psychology at Britain’s Oxford University.

“This does not mean that the protein can cure dementia or cognitive ageing in humans,” she told the London-based Science Media Centre (SMC).

Alzheimer’s experts said that the success with the lab mice touched on cognitive decline that comes naturally in ageing — and this is a process that is different from dementia, which is caused by disease.

“Although the treatments tested here boosted some aspects of learning and memory in mice, we don’t know how relevant the findings might be to people,” said David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at Alzheimer’s Research UK.

“This research, while interesting, only looked at memory and thinking changes caused by ageing, and not those involved in dementia.”

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting some 47 million people worldwide, and has no cure and no effective treatments.

People who cycle to work have a substantially lower risk of developing cancer or heart disease or dying prematurely, and governments should do all they can to encourage more active commuting, scientists said on Thursday.

In a study published in the BMJ British medical journal, the researchers found that cycling to work was linked to the most significant health benefits — including a 45 percent lower risk of developing cancer and a 46 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to non-active commuters.

Walking to work was linked to a 27 percent lower risk of developing heart disease and a 36 percent lower risk of dying from it, though it also appeared to have no effect on cancer risk or overall premature death risk, the study showed.

The research involved 264,377 people with an average age of 53 whose data forms part of the UK Biobank — a database of biological information from half a million British adults.

Since the study was observational, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, the researchers said. Its findings could also be affected by some confounding factors, they added, including that the mode and distance of commuting was self-reported, rather than objectively measured.

However, “the findings, if causal, suggest population health may be improved by policies that increase active commuting, particularly cycling”, they said.

These would include creating more cycle lanes, introducing more bike buying or hiring schemes, and providing better access for cyclists on public transport.

Lars Bo Andersen, a professor at the Western Norwegian University of Applied Sciences, who was not directly involved in the research but wrote a commentary on it in the BMJ, said its findings “are a clear call for political action on active commuting”, saying this had the potential to significantly improve public health by reducing rates of chronic disease.

“A shift from cars to more active modes of travel will also decrease traffic in congested city centres and help reduce air pollution, with further benefits for health,” he said.

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Verily, Alphabet Inc’s life sciences business, said it was launching a fouryear study with about 10,000 participants to understand how people transition from being healthy to becoming sick, and to identify additional risk factors for diseases.

Verily is partnering with Duke University and Stanford Medicine in the United States to enroll participants from varying backgrounds at sites in California and North Carolina within the next few months.

The study is the first initiative of Project Baseline, a broader effort to develop a reference, or a “baseline”, for what “health” refers to.

The study will collect data, as well as biological samples such as blood and saliva.

The sites will gather data from participants through repeat clinical visits, a wristwatch that monitors heart rate and activity levels, as well as participation in surveys and polls.

“The Project Baseline study has the opportunity to significantly influence our current body of knowledge by better understanding the indicators of wellness,” Nancy Brown, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association, said in a statement.

“The outcome of this study could inspire a new generation of tools that are geared towards disease prevention versus just diagnosis and treatment,” she added.