Drug Found to Create New Connections in Brain

Morgantown, WV (PRNewswire-USNewswire) - Scientists at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) have discovered that a cancer drug - Bryostatin - enhances the formation of new connections in rat brains during memory storage. This drug could potentially increase normal memory capacity in humans as well as repair and restore memory lost from Alzheimer's disease, stroke and head trauma.

In an article published in the December 4 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), BRNI Scientific Director Daniel Alkon, M.D., and Jarin Hongpaisan, Ph.D., describe how the cancer drug Bryostatin stimulates the production of connections between neurons in the same structural way that memory storage does naturally. Bryostatin essentially rewires the brain.

"There have been no effective drugs to promote brain repair," Dr. Alkon said. "Bryostatin and other BRNI drugs in this class could introduce a whole new era for brain repair. At the same time, we are now closer to understanding what controls the growth of synaptic connections in the adult brain."

The BRNI research shows that a healthy brain normally undergoes some "rewiring" when it stores memories. Bryostatin enhances this rewiring in normal healthy brains and also creates new connections in brains that have been ravaged by Alzheimer's disease, stroke or head trauma.
Click here for thw whole story