Anxiety and Dementia may be Reversible by Understanding Brain Cells’ Talk

Mental health conditions like anxiety and memory ailments such as dementia may be reversible by understanding how our brain cells talk or modification of molecular messages at brain synapses, as per a study at the University of Nottingham, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. Generally, the brain cells (neurons) communicate with each other at specific sites called synapses. One neuron releases specific molecules to signal to the next cell. In mental health conditions and cognitive disorders like dementia, these synaptic circuits are generally halted and lost.

These neuron functions depend on proteins that are made using information encoded in genetic material (RNA). The RNAs are located exactly where and when they are needed for synaptic signaling because some kind of synaptic ‘tag’ labels the correct active synapse.

Synaptic Tag in Brain Communication

Studies have found that the RNA can have a specific group called methyl group/molecule being added to one of the RNA bases which ‘marks’ the RNA message. This may influence proteins binding to DNA or RNA and consequently stop proteins from being produced.

The new study using advanced microscopy shows that RNA marking can be reversed at synapses and this may act as a ‘synaptic tag’. These findings remain a major step in identifying new treatments for neurological and psychiatric conditions.

“In this new study, we are able to gain a new understanding of the genomic mechanisms which regulate how nerve cells communicate at synapses. These genomic mechanisms involve methyl groups being put on RNA messages and importantly taken off when a synapse is active. The implications are very important for normal brain function but also for reversible psychiatric mental conditions such as anxiety and addiction disorders and early-stage neurodegenerative diseases such as dementias,” says Dr. Helen Miranda Knight, the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham, who led the study.

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Source-Medindia