A small molecule reverses the neuronal deterioration that is typically found in middle-aged animals.

Compared with the neurons of young animals, nerve cells in middle-aged rats generally have fewer branches. Their connections, or synapses, also seem to be less able to strengthen with repeated activation — changes that could help to explain declines in learning and memory over time. Christine Gall, Gary Lynch and their colleagues at the University of California, Irvine, preserved neuronal branching and boosted synapse strengthening in rats by treating them with a molecule that enhanced the activity of the AMPA-type glutamate receptor. This increased excitatory brain signalling. Animals treated for three months also showed improvements in some tests of long-term memory.

The authors suggest that the mechanism could one day be used to protect against age-related neuronal decline.

J. Neurosci. 36, 1636–1646 (2016)