Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine studied nerve cells in the part of the rat brain linked with coding and storing memories. Each nerve cell connects with at least a thousand others through synapses.
"When a person or animal learns and stores what it has learned, these connections become stronger or weaker depending on what we focus on or ignore," says researcher Ashok Hegde. When we play tennis, for example, the connections between eye and hand get stronger; when we learn to ignore the neighbour's barking dog, the connections for attention to it get weaker.
The scientists were able to identify what strengthens these connections and studied how breaking down proteins affects them. The breakdown of proteins (which cells make to control their functions) is known to play a part in memory, and protein levels are controlled by barrel-shaped structures called proteasomes, found in all cells.
The Wake Forest researchers were the first to show that proteasomes in different parts of nerve cells play different roles in controlling synapse strength, and so memory. Using chemicals that block proteasomes, they found that proteasomes in the branches (dendrites) of nerve cells limit the strength of connections, while those in the cell nucleus help keep connections strong over the long term.
This suggests a new strategy for treating memory loss: blocking proteasome activity in the dendrites. Could substances be found that do this, and would it really help memory loss in brain diseases, especially Alzheimer's? We await more discoveries and their practical use.
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