Texas scientists working on a way to help prevent the cognitive decline that happens with old age and Alzehimer's disease have found that a drug from Easter Island could help make people smarter.
A by-product of bacteria, rapamycin was first isolated from soil from Easter Island. Rapamycin is currently used in cancer treatment and as an immunosuppresant to prevent rejection by the host body during an organ transplant.
In their experiment, it improved the learning abilities and memories of young mice."We made the young ones learn, and remember what they learned, better than what is normal," said Veronica Galvan, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology at the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, part of the University of Texas Health Science Center. "Among the older mice, the ones fed with a diet including rapamycin actually showed an improvement, negating the normal decline that you see in these functions with age."
The drug also seemed to lower anxiety and depression among the mice.The experiment involved exposing the mice to a series of tunnels that evetually led to an open catwalk.
"All of a sudden the mice are in open space," lead author of the paper Jonathan Halloran said. "It's pretty far from the floor for their size, sort of like if a person is hiking and suddenly the trail gets steep. It's pretty far down and not so comfortable."
The mice fed a diet with rapamycin were less anxious up on the catwalk, and more actively explored the area.
The second part of the experiment tested for depression levels of mice by holding their tails, which is how they are moved from cage to cage. Those that struggled less were thought to have less of an inclination to always get out of an uncomfortable situation and more prone to giving up.
"We found rapamycin acts like an antidepressant -- it increases the time the mice are trying to get out of the situation," she said. "They don't give up; they struggle more."
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