The University of California San Francisco continues to surprise with new ads of the results on the investigational drug.
Just a few doses of ISRIB, an EXPERIMENTAL drug tested for months on mice by scientists at the University of San Francisco, can reverse age-related cognitive decline, both in memory and mental flexibility.
ISRIB has already shown excellent results in previous studies laboratory, always on mice. The experimental drug isn't just capable of reversing cognitive decline. He was also able to restore memory function months after traumatic brain injury, reverse cognitive impairments in Down syndrome, prevent noise-related hearing loss, fight some types of prostate cancer and even improve cognition in health conditions.
The cognitive decline linked to old age reversed
In the new studio, published at the beginning of December in the open access journal eLife, researchers showed another striking result of ISRIB. The drug led to a rapid restoration of juvenile cognitive abilities in aged mice. A regression of cognitive decline accompanied by rejuvenation of the brain and immune cells that could help explain the improvements in brain function.
The extremely rapid effects of ISRIB show for the first time that a significant component of age-related cognitive decline may be caused by a kind of reversible physiological “block,” not permanent degradation.
Susanna Rose, Professor in the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Sciences of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, UC San Francisco
ISRIB shows the brain can 'go backwards'
“The data suggests that the aging brain does not permanently lose essential cognitive abilities, as is commonly assumed. These cognitive resources are still there but have been somehow blocked, trapped by a vicious cycle of cellular stress,” he says Peter Walter, PhD, professor in the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
“Our work with ISRIB shows a way to break that cycle, reverse cognitive decline and restore cognitive abilities that have been blocked over time”
What is the next step for the investigational drug?
We have seen how ISRIB restores cognition in animals with traumatic brain injury. “It may seem like a crazy idea,” he says Susanna Rose, “but asking whether the drug can reverse the very symptoms of aging is just the next logical step.”
