A world group of researchers has developed a remedy primarily based on the GnRH protein that has improved the cognitive features of a small group of sufferers with Down syndrome. The research, whose outcomes have been revealed in Science, has been led by the College of Lille (France) and the College Hospital of Lausanne (Switzerland), and has had the participation of the College of Córdoba (UCO) and the Institute of August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Analysis (Idibaps).
Down syndrome, which impacts one in 800 individuals, is the main explanation for mental incapacity and causes varied medical manifestations, together with impaired cognitive means. With age, 77% of victims expertise signs just like these of Alzheimer’s illness. Folks with this syndrome endure from the gradual lack of olfactory capability —typical of neurodegenerative illnesses— and potential deficits in sexual maturation within the case of males.
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is an important protein in reproductive perform, “the sign with which the mind controls the reproductive system,” explains research co-author Manuel Tena-Sempere, and is used to enhance fertility.
On the Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory in Lille, researchers found that in mouse fashions of Down syndrome this protein doesn’t perform correctly, which contributes to the cognitive impairment related to this syndrome. The researchers confirmed that activating GnRH neurons normalized the system and improved each features.
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