US scientists have found a drug based on key kidney protein that can help boost brain function, and may also one day fight dementia in humans, according to a research. After successful studies on mice, the team from universities of Yale and California-San Francisco, tested the protein on rhesus monkeys, a species closer to humans.
A single dose of Klotho protein boosted the cognitive abilities and memory in ageing monkeys and the effect lasted at least two weeks, showing promise of treatment in humans. Produced by the kidney, klotho circulates in the blood and has been linked to health and lifespan. It decreases naturally with age.
“We validated the rhesus form of the klotho protein in mice showing it increased synaptic plasticity and cognition. We then found that a single administration of low-dose, but not high-dose, klotho enhanced memory in aged nonhuman primates,” the scientists wrote in the abstract of the research published in the journal Nature Aging.
“Systemic low-dose klotho treatment may prove therapeutic in ageing humans,” they added. With a rapidly ageing world population, cognitive deficits causing diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, have become a major biomedical challenge in need of effective pharmacological interventions.
In mice studies, the animals with higher than normal levels of klotho protein performed better on maze tests than normal mice. In the new study, 18 rhesus macaques whose ages were about equivalent to 65 in human years, were given a dose of klotho and to test their working memory on a food-finding task.
Retesting the monkeys after the two weeks, showed that the animals made correct choices more often than they did before receiving the injection. Klotho improved their performance on an easier task by about 6 per cent, and on the harder version by about 20 per cent, Dena Dubal, a professor of neurology at University of California-San Francisco was quoted as saying to the Wired.
The next step will be to test even lower doses in human clinical trials, to find the “therapeutic sweet spot for humans,” Dubal said. “Maybe it’s replenishment, rather than a super-dose, that’s needed for brain health.”
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