A team led by researchers at UC San Francisco and Baylor College of Medicine show that some of the intellectual impairments associated with DS may be traced to altered protein production in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, which is central to learning and long-term memory formation.
The researchers turned to a common mouse model that captures most of the chromosomal, developmental and cognitive abnormalities that define the human version of the syndrome.
The researchers discovered that hippocampal cells in DS mice had activated what’s known as the integrated stress response (ISR), a biological circuit that detects when something’s awry – the presence of an extra chromosome, for example, in the case of DS – and engages a protective response that activates machinery to tamp down protein production.
Though the ISR can be activated by four different enzymes, the scientists found that only one of them, named PKR, was involved in activating the ISR in hippocampal cells in DS. By blocking the activity of PKR they were able to prevent ISR activation and reverse the declines in protein production that had been observed in the brains of DS mice. But even more impressive, the researchers found that blocking the ISR significantly improved cognitive function in these mice as well.
This audio is programmed to provide the same effect by blocking the production of PKR in hippocampal cells.
It also activates protein-manufacturing machinery that competes directly with the ISR’s efforts to shut off protein production.
The effects should last at least 8 hours or more
Use as much as you need to. It may also help with other cognitive problems.
