2012年12月4日讯 /生物谷BIOON/ --研究人员报道称，一种通常用于治疗人类情绪障碍的药物——锂（lithium），能够恢复海马中的神经元再生（neurogenesis）。海马是与学习和记忆密切相关的一部分大脑。
唐氏综合症（Down syndrome）是一种神经退行性疾病，是遗传背景明确的智力残疾的首要原因。在大脑中，唐氏综合症导致神经元之间连接的改变及新神经元（神经元再生）形成的减少，而神经元再生通常发生于学习过程中。
在一项新研究中，意大利Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia研究所研究员Laura Gasparini领导的团队报告称，锂能够恢复海马中的神经元再生。锂也显着改善了唐氏综合症小鼠在情绪学习、空间记忆、事物辨别等测试任务中的表现。这些研究结果表明，以锂为基础的疗法，有望帮助唐氏综合症患者的治疗。研究结果已发表于Journal of Clinical Investigation杂志。（生物谷bioon.com）
编译自：Lithium Restores Cognitive Function in Down Syndrome Mice
doi:10.1172/JCI64650
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Lithium rescues synaptic plasticity and memory in Down syndrome mice
Andrea Contestabile, Barbara Greco, Diego Ghezzi, et al
Abstract:Down syndrome (DS) patients exhibit abnormalities of hippocampal-dependent explicit memory, a feature that is replicated in relevant mouse models of the disease. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis, which is impaired in DS and other neuropsychiatric diseases, plays a key role in hippocampal circuit plasticity and has been implicated in learning and memory. However, it remains unknown whether increasing adult neurogenesis improves hippocampal plasticity and behavioral performance in the multifactorial context of DS. We report that, in the Ts65Dn mouse model of DS, chronic administration of lithium, a clinically used mood stabilizer, promoted the proliferation of neuronal precursor cells through the pharmacological activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and restored adult neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) to physiological levels. The restoration of adult neurogenesis completely rescued the synaptic plasticity of newborn neurons in the DG and led to the full recovery of behavioral performance in fear conditioning, object location, and novel object recognition tests. These findings indicate that reestablishing a functional population of hippocampal newborn neurons in adult DS mice rescues hippocampal plasticity and memory and implicate adult neurogenesis as a promising therapeutic target to alleviate cognitive deficits in DS patients.
