HDAC3 Knockout Mice Exhibit Greatly Reduced Loss of Memory Function with Age

Work on the decline of memory formation with aging was presented at a recent conference and is doing the rounds in the press. The core of it was published and presented last year, so the overall topic isn't particularly new, but I didn't notice it at the time. The scientific group in question is interested in the role of histone deacetylases (HDACs) in memory. This is a long-running thread of research. Looking back in the Fight Aging! archives, inhibition of HDACs in the context of improved neural function was mentioned in 2012, and a trail of publications exists prior and since. The processes of acetylation and deacetylation of histones are important to gene regulation, a core part of the machinery that controls the packaged state of nuclear DNA in the cell nucleus. Genes must be accessible to the machinery of the cell in order to begin transcription, the first step in the complex operations involved in constructing proteins from their genetic blueprints. Whether a specific gene is accessible or inaccessible is determined by the state of various different histones, among other mechanisms. What does this have to do with memory? The formation of memory requires reliable access to certain genes, and the production of their proteins, but it is apparently the case that access becomes less available with age. One of the histones, HDAC3, becomes overactive, keeping DNA more tightly packaged than was the case in younger individuals. Researchers have now demonstrated th...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs