Study investigates whether obesity accelerates brain aging
· News-MedicalScientists have long known that being obese increases the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. What remains unclear is how that risk develops in the brain.
The stakes are significant: About one in three adults over 70 experiences age-related memory loss, a condition with no treatment, while nearly 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese.
If the two conditions are driven by the same pathway, it could reveal a new target for treatments designed to slow memory loss and reduce dementia risk.
A surprising pattern
A similar pattern appeared when Jarome and his team looked at young rats fed a high-fat diet. The rats showed elevated K63 levels comparable to those seen in much older rats and performed worse on memory tests.
"What surprised us was we were seeing the same changes in young obese rats that we normally see in much older brains - just on a much faster time scale," Jarome said. "It suggested that obesity-induced memory loss and age-related memory loss may be directly connected through this pathway."
A potential treatment target
The new study will follow rats fed either a high-fat or normal diet from young adulthood through old age, tracking memory changes and whether obesity and aging affect the same proteins in the brain.
Researchers also will use a targeted CRISPR-based tool to reduce K63 levels before obesity develops. The goal is to determine whether the same process that improved memory in older rats can also help prevent memory decline linked to obesity and aging.
Their findings could point toward new treatments designed to slow or prevent memory decline.
"If we can understand the mechanism that connects these two things, then we can start thinking about ways to target it," Jarome said. "My hope is that this will help us better understand what's causing the brain to essentially age faster and make us more likely to have dementia and Alzheimer's disease."
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