Overeating may cause brain aging while eating less turns on a molecule that helps the brain stay young.
A team of Italian researchers at the Catholic University of Sacred
Heart in Rome have discovered that this molecule, called CREB1, is
triggered by "caloric restriction" (low caloric diet) in the brain of mice. They found that CREB1 activates many genes linked to longevity and to the proper functioning of the brain.
This work was led by Giovambattista Pani, researcher at the Institute
of General Pathology, Faculty of Medicine at the Catholic University of
Sacred Heart in Rome, directed by Professor Achille Cittadini, in
collaboration with Professor Claudio Grassi of the Institute of Human Physiology. The research appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"Our hope is to find a way to activate CREB1, for example through new drugs, so to keep the brain young without the need of a strict diet," Dr Pani said.
Caloric restriction means the animals can only eat up to 70 percent
of the food they consume normally, and is a known experimental way to
extend life, as seen in many experimental models. Typically,
caloric-restricted mice do not become obese and don't develop diabetes;
moreover they show greater cognitive performance
and memory, are less aggressive. Furthermore they do not develop, if
not much later, Alzheimer's disease and with less severe symptoms than
in overfed animals.
Many studies suggest that obesity is bad for our brain, slows it
down, causes early brain aging, making it susceptible to diseases
typical of older people as the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. In contrast,
caloric restriction keeps the brain young. Nevertheless, the precise molecular mechanism behind the positive effects of an hypocaloric diet on the brain remained unknown till now.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-brain-young.html
No comments:
Post a Comment