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R_www.newscientist.com 2015 02199.txt.txt

#Old rat brains rejuvenated and new neurons grown by asthma drug IT as good as new. An asthma drug has rejuvenated rat brains, making old rats perform as well as young ones in tests of memory and cognition. Our brains slowly degenerate as we age. Typically, we lose the ability to make new neurons. And age-related inflammation of the brain is implicated in many brain disorders. To tackle both problems in one go, Ludwig Aigner at Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg in Austria and his colleagues targeted a set of receptors in the brain that, when activated, trigger inflammation. These receptors are thought also to be involved in the birth of neurons. A drug called montelukast (Singulair), regularly prescribed for asthma and allergic rhinitis, blocks these receptors, so Aigner and his colleagues tested it on young and old rats. The team used oral doses equivalent to those taken by people with asthma. The older animals were 20 months old perhaps between 65 and 75 in human years. The younger rats were 4 months old roughly the equivalent of 17 human years. The animals were fed the drug daily for six weeks, while another set of young and old rats were left untreated. There were 20 young and 14 old rats in total. The rats took part in a range of learning and memory tests. One of these involved the rats being placed in a pool of water with a hidden escape platform. At the start of the study, untreated young rats learned to recognise landmarks and quickly find their way to the platform, while the untreated older animals struggled at the task. By the end of their six-week drug regime, though, old animals performed as well as their younger companions. e restored learning and memory 100 per cent, to a level comparable with youth, says Aigner. He presented his findings earlier this month at the Neuroscience 2015 meeting in Chicago. Old rats that had been given montelukast had 80 per cent less brain inflammation than old rats that hadn been given the drug. They also had greater new neuron growth than untreated old rats about 50 per cent of that seen in young rats, says Aigner. The team also found that the blood-brain barrier which stops infectious agents reaching the brain but weakens with age was treated stronger in old rats. tructurally, the brain had rejuvenated, says Aigner. The drug had no effect on young animals, probably because it targets inflammation associated with age, says Aigner. ee identified a target that affects many different systems of the aged and degenerated brain, he says. think the drug reverses the damage associated with ageing. Because montelukast is used widely it should be relatively easy to look for similar effects in clinical trials in people, says James Nicoll, a neuropathologist at the University of Southampton, UK. Aigner agrees he will start by testing the drug in people with Parkinson disease, he says p

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