Single injection of "longevity protein" improves memory in old monkeys
Could klotho help humans deal with Alzheimer's disease?
A single injection of klotho, known as a “longevity protein,” modestly improved memory cognitive performance in older rhesus macaques. As reported here, “It’s the first time klotho administration has been shown to boost cognition in primates, a major step in the long road towards seeing whether klotho could help humans in dealing with Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related conditions.”
Klotho was discovered in 1997, when researchers were studying a strain of lab mouse with dramatically reduced life spans. They traced it to a mutation in a gene called “klotho.” Humans produce klotho as well, but it declines with age. “In mice, researchers found that administering klotho can boost lifespan, brain plasticity and cognitive functioning, seemingly reversing the effects of aging with a single shot of the stuff.”
For this new research, a team at the University of California San Francisco, injected 18 old rhesus macaques with a low- and high-dose of klotho derived from the monkeys, whose version of klotho is 96% similar to the human form. From the article:
“Four hours after injection, the macaques underwent a battery of cognitive tests probing their spatial and working memory. They did similar tests again over the next two weeks, and the researchers compared their performance to baseline levels. They were also compared to macaques that got a sham shot.
“Monkeys that got the low-dose shot of klotho saw a modest boost in performance, getting an average of about 55 percent of questions right on the hardest memory task over the course of two weeks, while monkeys without the shot got about 45 percent of questions correct. A higher dose of klotho conferred no extra performance boost to the medicated monkeys.”
That the improvement was only modest, was noted by the researchers, who were expected cognitive improvement would be “a bit higher.”
Other considerations for humans, such as how long the effects last and whether there are side effects, still have to be determined.
Even so, the study is important because it demonstrates that klotho “can enhance cognition in a more complex brain like our own.” The article quotes lead researcher Dena Dubal, a neuroscientist: “It’s a big deal. Any increase in cognition — including our ability to think and remember — is really meaningful, since this is one of our most valued functions of the brain.”
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