Some positive items!
1. “Hacking is gaining access to a computer … without the intention of destroying data or maliciously harming the computer. This represents the Good Guys most of the time…” (adapted definition from the Urban Dictionary). It also describes clever little do-it-yourself actions that can improve life. Could hacking the brain ever be a focused approach to improving the lives of People Living With Dementia? [URL links underlined]
Hacking the Brain: Dimensions of Cognitive Enhancement
This is an overview paper from last year, about the possibilities for improving cognition (in humans!!) The color title figure above is from the paper. It mentions many approaches to improving cognition, from caffeine and energy drinks to nasal oxytocin to external brain stimulation to brain training with video games to sleep and mediation.
Some have been tested in AD, but it’s nice to see a review of what could be prioritized if there were an overall research strategy and leadership. Enhancement could be a complementary approach to all the proprietary single agent Big Pharma trials of the recent past, which have been attempts at disease modification based on biomarkers. It would be interesting to see if enhancement could work empirically, across different diagnostic and biomarker groups.
2. The title of the university online news article seems pretty remarkable:
Drug Reverses Age-Related Mental Decline Within Days in Mouse Model (Dec, 2020)
The actual paper repeats the bold claim in its title:
Small molecule cognitive enhancer reverses age-related memory decline in mice
https://elifesciences.org/articles/62048
IMHO, I’m not sure that the data plots, showing some improved performance, are “reversal,” but the authors cite other work in mice that taken together, leads them to that claim in their paper. This is all about the “Integrated Stress Response (ISR),” evidently a damaging metabolic pathway in the brain, and this team uses a molecular inhibitor (ISRIB) that seems to slow down that process. The ISR, reviewed in Science and involving serine kinases, seems a bit different than the inflammaging concept that has appeared in this blog recently. Whatever words the authors use to describe their work, let’s hope they can extend the findings to humans so that a therapy can be developed.
3. Another hopeful university online news headline:
Cell Discovery May be Key to Treating Currently Incurable Neurological Diseases (Oct, 2020)
New study shows potential for unprecedented recovery from stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, ALS and many other brain and spine diseases and injuries
The actual title is a bit more modest but still intriguing (also a study in mice):
A new neutrophil subset promotes CNS neuron survival and axon regeneration. Nat Immunol (2020)
Neutrophils are white blood cells, usually like first responders, found fighting infection and in pus, and play a role in wound healing. They carry little packets of bacterial poisons and cytokines, to call other cells into action. Here the authors use a mouse nerve injury model and found that a certain subset of neutrophils seems important to a mouse’s attempts at nerve repair. Again, a long way off from human application I guess. We do have other scientifically manipulated white blood cells, CAR-T, for leukemia therapy, after all, so let’s hope these researchers can eventually get to the human level.
Readers here know that when time is limited, AdGadfly would rather not read rodent studies at all. The science in the two above is interesting and valuable, just a long way off from human clinical reality. Here’s a tip off to something entertaining in this arena of rodent studies, a Twitter account “JUSTSAYSINMICE“!
“….all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…”
With that, Happy Holidays, Happy 2021, and keep the pandemic away!
A confession, I am a bit of a bio-hacker myself, but favor whole-body healthy lifestyle inverventions that affect similar pathways.
For a variety of reasons and for the purpose of this posting, let’s assume that the vast majority of scientific literature on disease pathways and networks is heavily influenced by the large funding geared towards discovery and validation of single drug targets, so that the literature on healthy lifestyle interventions is comparatively weak.
With that in mind, I feel at ease to make bold claims about healthy living based on very little scientific evidence. I’m ready to take leaps of faith when it comes to biohacking using healthy time-tested practices.
So now to the point, the 2016 Lancet Neurology Review “Harnessing the integrated stress response for the treatment of multiple sclerosis”points to several factors that can lead to “moderate and hence protective ISR activity.” These factors ER stress (involving hypoxia) and amino acid starvation /glucose deprivation (GCN2). I would suggest one hypothesis for other biohackers to test, “Ancient yogic breathing practices of India and/or the bodily exhaustion practices inherent in both Asian martial arts and Western extreme sports together with intermittent fasting stimulate moderate and therefore neuro- protective and remyelinating pathways similar to the use the small molecular inhibitor (ISRIB).”
Of note: Hyperbaric and Hypobaric therapy treatment of ischemic encephalopathy as well as longevity has also been in the news lately. (https://www.aging-us.com/article/202188/text) Instead of investing $$$ in hyperbaric/hypobaric therapy, I am simply alternating yogic deep breathing exercises which include alternation with holding the my breath for my personal maximal amount of time. Much cheaper!!! Yoga rocks!
just a quick note on hyperbaric oxygen for fans (Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson is one)….some consider oxygen an “oxidizer” if you like the presumed effects of “anti-oxidants”, and there’s no question that too much oxygen causes retinal damage in premature babies needing assisted breathing in neonatal intensive care…