shutterstock 155318618

Common Growth Factor in Brain Might Slow Cognitive Decline

shutterstock_155318618With age, often comes mental decline, but a new study published in Neurology points to potential neuroprotective effects from a common growth factor in the brain. 

Researchers led by Aron S. Buchman, M.D. of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago examined the role of the gene called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, and its involvement in age-related cognitive decline. 

According to the National Institutes of Health, BDNF gives instructions for creating a protein that is found in the brain and spinal cord that helps maintain and grow neurons.  BDNF could be important for learning and memory as it helps regulate synaptic plasticity.

The current study included 535 people who were all participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project and the Religious Order Study.  Participants had an average age of 81 and were followed until death, an average of six years. Each year participants took cognitive tests to measure their thinking and memory abilities.  Following their death autopsies were performed and the levels of the protein from BDNF expression were measured.  A neurologists went over medical records and determined whether participants had dementia, mild cognitive impairment, or no cognitive impairment. 

Results from the study found that people with more of the protein in their brain had slower rates of cognitive decline. Participants with the highest 10 percent of BDNF saw a rate of decline 50 percent slower than those with the lowest 10 percent of BDNF.

[pullquote]Results from the study found that people with more of the protein in their brain had slower rates of cognitive decline.[/pullquote]

Effects of plaques and tangles in the brain, often seen as Alzheimer’s disease hallmarks, were reduced in participants with high levels of BDNF.

“This relationship was strongest among the people with the most signs of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in their brains,” Buchman said in a prepared statement. “This suggests that a higher level of protein from BDNF gene expression may provide a buffer, or reserve, for the brain and protect it against the effects of the plaques and tangles that form in the brain as a part of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Of the participants who had the highest level of plaques and tangles in the brain, those with the highest amounts of BDNF showed a 40 percent slower rate of cognitive decline compared to those with the lowest amount.

Exercise can increase levels of BDNF in the blood, but it isn’t yet clear what that means for BDNF protein levels in the brain, according to the researchers.

Buchman noted that more research is needed to determine if increasing levels of BDNF gene expression in the brain protects against cognitive decline.