A recent study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh states that as a person grows and steps towards their old age, their brain’s metabolic efficiency begins to decrease slowly. To prevent this cognitive decline in people, the neuroscientists intended to develop therapies for the masses with this research. This research is intended to bridge the wide distance that has been established for years between science labs and on-ground medical patients.
Silent Shutdown: Ageing Brain
Researchers have launched a five-year NIH-funded project, which costs 3.3 million dollars. The purpose of this project is to build and develop the first of its kind, a whole-brain theory on how metabolic costs impact the cognitive decline within people after a certain age. The goal of neuroscientists in working on this research was to develop some therapies that can prevent people from developing the problem where metabolism starts affecting and damaging their cognitive powers.
The team of researchers includes Lordanova, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh and Zhan, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. Along with co-investigators Alberto Vazquez, Tao Jin and Alex Poplawsky from the School of Medicine. As well as Nicholas Fitz and Rebecca Deek from the School of Public Health at University of Pittsburgh.
Although the neuroscientists had a wide range of data related to cognitive decline among people and the functions performed by the human brain, as well as tests on mice, the major challenge in front of them still remained to translate those insightful views.
Read More: How to Take Care of Mental Health in Old Age?
Research Details
The team of Lordanova, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh and Zhan, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, focused on the metabolic changes that take place inside the human brain’s networks. They intended to build a system that could prove itself to be capable of making predictions about brain health.
While conducting this study, the researchers most significantly had put their focus upon glucose, lactate and other factors, including creatine, inside the brain activity. Glucose is highly crucial for our brain cells, and they require a high amount of it along with oxygen to function properly. However, as people approach their old age and senior years of life, a significant decline is noted in metabolic efficiency, and our brain cells adapt to this change in their metabolic processing. In cases where the brain cells fail to adapt according to these changes, cognitive decline and mental health problems like dementia start taking their places inside the body.
Major Findings
The researchers are still working on this topic, though; some discoveries include that by studying how the metabolic factors work in interacting with genetics, gender differences, and age of a person, the neuroscientist’s team can identify biological signs which would guide towards preventing cognitive decline. The neuroscientists state that by making improvements upon the cross-species approaches, they could easily identify some very common metabolic problems. This would help in providing prevention to the patients at the right time before they start facing cognitive decline.
Author’s Perspective
In a statement given by Lordanova, she said ‘’I’m obsessed with figuring out how to translate what we learn in mouse models of Alzheimer’s into something meaningful for humans, because translation is not trivial’’.
Conclusion
The researchers are finding and working to find a way through which the problems of cognitive decline among people that come with increasing age of a person can be countered. They intended to build a system that could prove itself to be capable of making predictions about brain health. Some discoveries include that by studying how the metabolic factors work in interacting with genetics, gender differences, and the age of a person, the neuroscientist’s team can identify biological signs that would guide towards preventing Alzheimer’s.
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