PanArmenian.Net
16 Feb 2019, 18:37 GMT+10
PanARMENIAN.Net - Memory and thinking skills naturally slow with age but now scientists are peeking inside living brains to tell if depression might worsen that decline - and finding some worrisome clues, CBS reports.
Depression has long been linked to certain cognitive problems, and depression late in life even may be a risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's. Yet how depression might harm cognition isn't clear.
One possibility: Brain cells communicate by firing messages across connections called synapses. Generally, good cognition is linked to more and stronger synapses. With cognitive impairment, those junctions gradually shrink and die off. But until recently, scientists could count synapses only in brain tissue collected after death.
Yale University scientists used a new technique to scan the brains of living people - and discovered that patients with depression had a lower density of synapses than healthy people the same age.
The lower the density, the more severe the depression symptoms, particularly problems with attention and loss of interest in previously pleasurable activities, Yale neuroscientist Irina Esterlis said Thursday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She wasn't studying just seniors but a range of ages including people too young for any cognitive changes to be obvious outside of a brain scan - on the theory that early damage can build up.
'We think depression might be accelerating the normal aging,' she said.
Her studies so far are small. To prove if depression really worsens that decline would require tracking synaptic density in larger numbers of people as they get older, to see if and how it fluctuates over time in those with and without depression, cautioned Jovier Evans, a staff scientist at the National Institute on Mental Health.
Esterlis is planning a larger study to do that. It's delicate research. Volunteers are injected with a radioactive substance that binds to a protein in the vesicles, or storage bins, used by synapses. Then during a PET scan, areas with synapses light up, allowing researchers to see how many are in different regions of the brain.
Esterlis said there are no medications that specifically target the underlying synapse damage.
But other brain experts said the preliminary findings are a reminder of how important it is to treat depression promptly, so people don't spend years suffering.
'If your mood isn't enough to make you go and get treated, then hopefully your cognition is,' said Dr. Mary Sano, who directs the Mount Sinai Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in New York and wasn't involved in the new research.
Still, she cautioned that normal cognitive aging is a complicated process that involves other health problems, such as heart disease that slows blood flow in the brain. It might be that depression, rather than worsening synaptic decline, just makes it more obvious, Sano noted.
With depression 'at any age, there's a hit on the brain. At an older age the hit may be more visible because there may already be some loss,' she explained.
Indeed, another way the brain ages: The blood-brain barrier, which normally protects against infiltration of damaging substances, gradually breaks down, Daniela Kaufer of the University of California, Berkeley, told the AAAS meeting. That triggers inflammation, setting off a cascade that can cause cognitive impairment. Her lab found a specific molecular culprit and is developing, in studies with mice, a way to block the inflammatory damage.
The University of Toronto's Etienne Sibille is developing a compound to target yet another piece of the puzzle, brain receptors that are impaired with both aging and depression. Mouse studies showed it could reverse stress-induced memory loss, he said. Any human testing is at least several years away.
Get a daily dose of Toronto Telegraph news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Toronto Telegraph.
More InformationTOKYO, Japan: Japan has a new top sumo wrestler — and he's Japanese. Onosato, who weighs 191 kilograms (421 pounds), has become a yokozuna,...
LAS VEGAS, Nevada: Khaby Lame, the most followed person on TikTok with millions of fans, has left the United States after being held...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks tumbled Friday as the world was thrown into turmoil by unprecedented attacks by Israel on Iran. ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Paramount Global is cutting 3.5 percent of its U.S. staff as part of another round of layoffs. The company...
SAN FRANCISCO, California: In a move that highlights how the demand for compute power is reshaping the AI industry, OpenAI has signed...
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, China: What started as a surprise toy from a blind box has now entered the elite world of high-value collectibles....
AHMEDABAD, WASHINGTON: An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, carrying 242 people, crashed just after taking off from Ahmedabad airport...
SYDNEY, Australia: Australia will not ease its strict biosecurity rules during trade talks with the United States, Prime Minister Anthony...
New Delhi [India] June 14, (ANI): Endorsing the One Nation One Election (ONOE) initiative, senior BJP leader and former Rajasthan Governor...
Rishikesh (Uttarakhand) [India], June 14 (ANI): Parmarth Niketan Ashram President Swami Chidanand Saraswati performed special prayers...
Tehran [Iran], June 14 (ANI): Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian extended his condolences to Prime Minister Narendra Modi following...
Gaya (Bihar) [India], June 14 (ANI): The Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC) held a prayer ceremony and lamp offering at the...