Aging is a natural part of life. However, when adulthood begins, neurons in the brain reach their maximum size during early 20’s, then begin very slowly to shrink its volume—leading to cognitive ability of a person to decline.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 57 million people worldwide were living with dementia in 2021, and 10 million new cases are added each year.
According to Cleveland Clinic, Dementia mostly happens due to neurodegenerative diseases that slowly damage brain cells over time leading to the decline of memory and learning. Disorder, conditions, chronic injury and chronic disease like hypertension (high-blood pressure) can cause dementia.
To address these problems, scientists have discovered age-related molecular changes in the brain and developed ways to adjust them to improve memory and quality of life.
Timothy James, associate professor at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ School of Animal Sciences, and his graduate students used gene-editing tools to target these age-related changes in laboratory rats.
Graduate student, Yeeun Bae, led the team that examined a process called K63 polyubiquitination, a molecular tagging system that instructs proteins in the brain, how to behave.
They found that K63 polyubiquitination disrupts two distinct brain regions: The hippocampus, which helps form and retrieve memories and amygdala, which is important for emotional memory. These interfere with neuronal signaling and synaptic function, leading to impaired memory formation and altered emotional processing. It also causes neurodegenerative diseases.
Using the CRISPR-dCas13 RNA editing system, the researchers were able to adjust K63 polyubiquitination, improving memory in older rats.
“Together, these findings reveal the important functions of K63 polyubiquitination in the brain’s aging process,” said Jarome, with “In both regions, adjusting this single molecular process helped improve memory.”
Another graduate student, Shannon Kincaid, focused on IGF2, a growth-factor gene that supports memory formation. As the brain ages, IGF2 activity drops due to DNA methylation, a natural process where chemical tags accumulate on the gene and switch it off. Using CRISPR-dCas13, they removed these tags and reactivated IGF2, boosting memory in older rats.
“Everyone experiences some memory decline as they age,” Jarome said. “But when it becomes abnormal, the risk for Alzheimer’s disease rises. What we’re learning is that some molecular-level changes can be corrected, offering a path toward potential treatments.”
According to Elizabeth C. Bryda, experiments in laboratory rats help to determine and identify information from the rats to understand the same processes in other species including humans. The collaborative research from the experiment of laboratory rats offer potential treatments to dementia using CRISPR gene editing to humans through stages of clinical trials to other species and approval for testing to humans.
BEYOND EXPERIMENTS
Although breakthrough studies demonstrate potential treatments from laboratory rats using gene editing, scientific evidence shows different ways to improve your cognitive memory.
According to Harvard Health Publishing from Harvard Medical School, Physical exercise helps to improve brain memory by reducing insulin resistance, reducing inflammation, and stimulating the release of growth factors or chemicals in the brains that affect the overall health of brain cells and new neurons.
Based on the study of the American Psychological Association (APA), one of the causes of dementia is poor nutrition, lifestyle and health of a person. Having a good lifestyle, proper nutrition shows memory improvement. Additionally, mental techniques like socializing and avoiding distractions also improve cognitive ability.
Aging is a natural part of life, when adulthood begins, neurons in the brain reach their size and start to shrink during early 20’s. However, identifying the molecular-level changes through rats and corrected by gene-editing can help to make a potential treatment for humans with cognitive aging. But with proper nutrition, lifestyle and habits of a person can help to improve brain memory beyond aging.
Written by Mark Jerence S. Domingo, Insight PH
Mark Jerence S. Domingo, Insight PH is a dedicated campus journalist and contributor. Their insightful writing sparks meaningful conversations and keeps the community informed.
