You're over the hill and — along with everything else — your memory is slipping. Your doctor gives you a pill and, suddenly, you can remember your high school locker combination.
Science fiction? Maybe not. New research out of the U.S. holds out the hope of a superhuman assist for failing memories — and a badly-needed new therapy for Alzheimer's patients.
The study by researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston — led by neuroscientist and former McGill University postdoctoral fellow Mauro Costa-Mattioli with contributions from a couple of Canadians — found suppressing a molecule called PKR in the brains of mice improved the rodents' memory function and learning abilities.
PKR is an immune molecule previously known to act as a signal to the brain of viral infections, Costa-Mattioli said.
"We recognize that PKR plays a dual role, one in regulating simple everyday processes like the way neurons talk to each other (for) memory, but also has a stress response," said John Bell, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute who also contributed to the study.
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