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posted by martyb on Saturday July 11 2020, @10:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the of-mice-and-mien dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The new study, published July 9, 2020 in Science, showed that after mice exercise, their livers secrete a protein called Gpld1 into the blood. Levels of this protein in the blood correspond to improved cognitive function in aged mice, and a collaboration with the UCSF Memory and Aging Center found that the enzyme is also elevated in the blood of elderly humans who exercise regularly. But the researchers showed that simply increasing the amount of Gpld1 produced by the mouse liver could confer many of the same brain benefits as regular exercise.

[...] Villeda lab graduate student Alana Horowitz and postdoctoral researcher Xuelai Fan, PhD, [pursued] blood-borne factors that might also confer the benefits of exercise, which is also known to rejuvenate the aging brain in a similar fashion to what was seen in the lab's "young blood" experiments.

Horowitz and Fan took blood from aged mice who had exercised regularly for seven weeks and administered it to sedentary aged mice. They found that four weeks of this treatment produced dramatic improvements in learning and memory in the older mice, similar to what was seen in the mice who had exercised regularly. When they examined the animals' brains, they found evidence of enhanced production of new neurons in the region known as the hippocampus, a well-documented proxy for the rejuvenating benefits of exercise.

To discover what specific biological factors in the blood might be behind these effects, Horowitz, Fan and colleagues measured the amounts of different soluble proteins in the blood of active versus sedentary mice. They identified 30 candidate proteins, 19 of which, to their surprise, were predominantly derived from the liver and many of which had previously been linked to functions in controlling the body's metabolism. Two of these proteins -- Gpld1 and Pon1 -- stood out as particularly important for metabolic processes, and the researchers chose to study Gpld1 in more detail because few previous studies had investigated its function.

[...] The team found that Gpld1 increases in the blood circulation of mice following exercise, and that Gpld1 levels correlate closely with improvements in the animals' cognitive performance. Analysis of human data collected as part of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center's Hillblom Aging Network study showed that Gpld1 is also elevated in the blood of healthy, active elderly adults compared to less active elders.

To test whether Gpld1 itself could drive the observed benefits of exercise, the researchers used genetic engineering to coax the livers of aged mice to overproduce Gpld1, then measured the animals' performance in multiple tests that measure various aspects of cognition and memory. To their amazement, three weeks of the treatment produced effects similar to six weeks of regular exercise, paired with dramatic increases in new neuron growth in the hippocampus.

Without the exercise, you'll still be unable to rapidly climb several flights of stairs, but now you'll be much more aware of it.

-- submitted from IRC

Journal Reference:
Alana M. Horowitz, Xuelai Fan, Gregor Bieri, et al. Blood factors transfer beneficial effects of exercise on neurogenesis and cognition to the aged brain [$], Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw2622)


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:13PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:13PM (#1019537)

    Could some of the negative effects of drug/alcohol use on cognitive functions be due to liver damage?

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:28PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:28PM (#1019583)

    Possibly but outweighed by the genetic advantage of not being a pontificating self-righteous douchnozzle.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @06:39PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @06:39PM (#1019625)

      Where do you get "self-righteous douchnozzle?" Was there a value judgment made? Are you attempting to deny that long-term drug and alcohol abuse are linked to cognitive declines? Where does this anger come from?

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:50PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:50PM (#1019678)

        Where do you get "self-righteous douchnozzle?"

        Just found one. They're everywhere.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:16PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:16PM (#1019936)

          I can practically guarantee that I use more illegal drugs on a regular basis than any of you ACs calling me a self-righteous douchnozzle, so I just don't understand why you think that way. Where is the self-righteousness?