Alzheimer’s memory loss ‘could be reversed’

MEMORIES seemingly destroyed by Alzheimer’s could one day be restored, a study suggests.

Damage to the brain caused by the disease was thought to permanently wipe memories.

But a study of mice, published in the journal Hippocampus, offers evidence that they are still there.

Scientists at Columbia University in the US tested mice whose brain cells were genetically engineered to glow red when they are storing memories and yellow when they are being recalled. One group of mice were healthy, while another had a condition similar to Alzheimer’s disease.

In a memory test, both groups were exposed to a lemon scent followed by an electric shock. In healthy mice, the red and

yellow neurons overlapped, showing that the mice retrieved the lemon-shock memory from the same place it had been stored. But in the Alzheimer’s mice, different cells glowed red – suggesting they were calling up the wrong memories.

The scientists were then able to stimulate the yellow memory-storing neurons, prompting the Alzheimer’s mice to react more strongly to lemon.

Scientists believe targeted drugs or techniques such as deep-brain stimulation could one day be used on humans to provoke similar recollection of ‘lost’ memories.

Professor Ralph Martins at Edith Cowan University in Australia, who was not part of the study, said it could be ‘revolutionary’.

He told New Scientist: ‘It has the potential to lead to novel drug development to help with regaining memories.’

‘This may be revolutionary’