Adrenomedullin is Involved in Age-Related Memory Loss

Researchers have identified adrenomedullin as a contributing factor in age-related memory loss in mice, and in the open access paper here note that levels of adrenomedullin increase with age in humans as well. This research is a fair distance from a rigorous proof of the relevance of adrenomedullin to human memory loss, but it is nonetheless quite interesting. The observed correlations suggest that the important connection is between adrenomedullin and the aggregated tau protein that gives rise to tauopathies, and consequently that tau is influential in the lesser degree of mental decline with age that occurs in people without full-blown neurodegenerative conditions. Aggregation of altered tau protein is a fairly fundamental form of age-related damage, something that occurs as a side-effect of the normal operation of metabolism, so it might be expected to contribute to declining function in proportion to its presence. Memory loss is a common characteristic of normal aging, and is greatly accelerated in some neurodegenerative diseases. The causes of memory loss during normal aging are not completely understood. Atrophy of some brain areas has been shown in normal aging and changes in intrinsic neural electrical excitability associated with oxidative stress have been hypothesized as potential causes. Subtle perturbations in stabilization of neuronal cytoskeleton, reminiscent of those occurring during Alzheimer's disease (AD) neurodegeneration, may also be an important ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs