Study hints at ways to generate new neurons in old brains (Lower glucose level)

Medical Xpress / Stanford University Medical Center / Nature ^ | Oct. 2, 2024 | Anne Brunet et al

[ConservativeMind]

Most neurons in the human brain last a lifetime, and for good reason. Intricate, long-term information is preserved in the complex structural relationships between their synapses. To lose the neurons would be to lose that critical information—that is, to forget.

Intriguingly, some new neurons are still produced in the adult brain by a population of cells called neural stem cells. As brains age, however, they become less and less adept at making these new neurons.

A new study sheds hopeful new light on how and why neural stem cells, the cells behind the generation of new neurons in the adult brain, become less active as brains age.

The research suggests intriguing next steps in addressing old neural stem cell passivity—or even stimulating neurogenesis, the production of new neurons, in younger brains in need of repair.

"We first found 300 genes that had this ability— one in particular caught our attention," Brunet said. "It was the gene for the glucose transporter known as the GLUT4 protein, suggesting that elevated glucose levels in and around old neural stem cells could be keeping those cells inactive."

With the top intervention, they observed over two-fold increase in newborn neurons in old mice.

The same technique could also be applied to studies of brain damage, Ruetz said. "Neural stem cells in the subventricular zone are also in the business of repairing brain tissue damage from stroke or traumatic brain injury."

The glucose transporter connection "is a hopeful finding," Brunet said. For one, it suggests not only the possibility of designing pharmaceutical or genetic therapies to turn on new neuron growth in old or injured brains, but also the possibility of developing simpler behavioral interventions, such as a low carbohydrate diet that might adjust the amount of glucose taken up by old neural stem cells.

[ConservativeMind]

The money quotes:

“It was the gene for the glucose transporter known as the GLUT4 protein, suggesting that elevated glucose levels in and around old neural stem cells could be keeping those cells inactive.”

They see a “possibility of developing simpler behavioral interventions, such as a low carbohydrate diet,” which might address this issue, letting the brain again produce neurons.

[ConservativeMind]

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