January 14, 2015

expert reaction to study looking at brain cooling and neurodegeneration

A study published in the journal Nature has examined the effects in mice of cooling the brain, such as happens during hibernation, on neurodegenerative disorders. The researchers point to the protection in mice of brain cells despite the loss of connections between them during hibernation as a process which could potentially be used to treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s in humans.

Prof. Christian Hölscher, Professor of Neuroscience, Lancaster University, said:

“The study by Professor Giovanna Mallucci et al. shows that a specific gene that is activated by cooling can prevent neuronal death. This is a very encouraging finding. The next steps will be to identify what protein this gene encodes for, and to analyse what this protein does in the neuron to protect it. This may well lead to new drug targets which could protect neurons from damage in neurodegenerative disorders. However, it is a long way away from any new drug that may be given to patients. Drug development takes ten years or more before it is available as a treatment. Nevertheless, basic research such as this is essential to find new drug targets and promising novel treatment strategies.”

Dr Doug Brown, Director of Research and Development at Alzheimer’s Society said:

“We know that cooling body temperate can protect the brain from some forms of damage and this method is being investigated as a treatment for acute conditions such as strokes and brain injury. It’s interesting to see this protective mechanism now also being studied in neurodegenerative disease.

“Connections between brain cells – called synapses – are lost early on in several neurodegenerative conditions, and this exciting study has shown for the first time that switching on a cold-shock protein called RBM3 can prevent these losses. While we don’t think body cooling is a feasible treatment for long-term, progressive conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, this research opens up the possibility of finding drugs that can have the same effect. We are very much looking forward to seeing this research taken forward to the next stage.”

Prof. David Edwards, Kings College London, said

“The surprising discovery that cooling babies after a period of oxygen deprivation significantly reduces brain damage has been one of the advances of the last decade, and if we could understand just how this works it should be possible to make treatments more effective. This interesting new research, although currently targeting a rather different situation, offers a new way to investigate this. ”

Dr Eric Karran, Director of Research, Alzheimer’s Research UK, said:

“This promising study highlights a natural process nerve cells use to protect themselves, which could be harnessed successfully in mice to resist damage associated with neurodegenerative diseases. It’s still unclear exactly how and why nerve cells die in diseases like Alzheimer’s, but a future treatment able to bolster nerve cells against damage could have wide-reaching benefits.

“This research is at an early stage and will need exploring further in humans before we know whether it could be developed into an effective treatment for diseases like Alzheimer’s. There is currently a desperate lack of effective treatment options for people with dementia. Research to uncover the key biological mechanisms keeping brain cells healthy is important, as it provides more avenues for investigation in the search for treatments that could make a real difference to people’s lives.”

Prof. John Hardy, Professor of Neuroscience, UCL, said:

“It is always good to have a new approach to the prevention of neurodegeneration.  However, the devil is in the details and clearly, the first thing that needs to happen is for the apparent success of this new strategy to be replicated in other labs.”

‘RBM3 mediates structural plasticity and protective effects of cooling in neurodegeneration’ by Diego Peretti et al. published in Nature on Wednesday 14th January. 

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/?s=neurodegeneration&cat=

Declared interests

John Hardy consults on Alzheimer’s therapeutics for Eisai plc.