Health and Medicine
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Scientists have taken a significant step towards combating the inflammation responsible for brain aging and brain fog, which has traditionally been viewed as irreversible. What’s more, the solution, which has been tested on mice, doesn’t even involve invasive surgery but can be administered with a simple nasal spray.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Over the past century, advances in medicine, public health, and the overall standard of living (for many people) have led to increased life expectancy. But accompanying this extension in our years is a rise in age-related ailments, especially neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. One factor contributing to this is inflammation.
As we age, our brains start to experience a low-grade but chronic inflammatory process referred to as “neuro-inflammaging”. You can think of this like a small, ever-present “fire” that constantly smolders deep in the brain’s memory center. The metaphorical smoke from this fire creates brain fog that makes it difficult to think, form new memories, or adapt to new environments. At the same time, it increases the risk of a person developing disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
For a long time, this process was seen to be a natural aspect of aging that couldn’t be reversed. But that may be about to change. Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a nasal spray that dramatically reduces brain inflammation with two simple doses. This reduction in inflammation was accompanied by reinvigorated mitochondria – the famous powerhouses of our body’s cells – and significantly improved memory.
What’s more, this all happened within weeks of administering the treatment. These results could reshape the future of neurodegenerative therapies and may fundamentally change how researchers think about aging.
“Brain age-related diseases like dementia are a major health concern worldwide. What we’re showing is brain aging can be reversed, to help people stay mentally sharp, socially engaged and free from age-related decline,” Ashok Shetty at Texas A&M University explained in a statement.
“As we develop and scale this therapy, a simple, two-dose nasal spray could one day replace invasive, risky procedures or maybe even months of medication.”
This potentially game-changing development focuses on extracellular vesicles (EVs), millions of tiny particles that function as mediators of intercellular communication. Essentially, EVs are like delivery vehicles that carry important genetic cargo such as microRNAs.
“MicroRNAs act like master regulators,” Madhu Leelavathi Narayana, also at Texas A&M, added. “They help modulate and regulate many gene and signaling pathways in the brain.”
When these EVs are administered through the nasal spray, they can bypass the brain’s protective shield and travel directly into its tissue, where they are absorbed.
“The mode of delivery is one of the most exciting aspects of our approach,” Maheedhar Kodali at Texas A&M explained. “Intranasal delivery allows us to reach, and treat, the brain directly without invasive procedures.”
Once the EVs have been absorbed in the brain’s resident immune cells, the microRNAs suppress systems that drive chronic inflammation in aging brains, such as the NLRP3 inflammasome and the cGAS-STING signaling pathways.
At the cellular level, the EVs’ presence helps recharge neuronal mitochondria, which helps clear brain fog while physically improving the brain’s ability to process and store information.
“We are giving neurons their spark back by reducing oxidative stress and reactivating the brain’s mitochondria,” Narayana added.
Behavioral tests on mice confirmed the biology. Those treated with the nasal spray showed significant improvements in their ability to recognize familiar objects as well as their ability to detect new ones and changes in their environment. This was in sharp contrast with mice in the control group.
“We are seeing the brain’s own repair systems switch on, healing inflammation and restoring itself,” Shetty said.
Although it is still early days for this work, which needs more research and to undergo human trials, the researchers have already filed a patent for the therapy. If all goes well, this could mark a turning point in how we treat brain aging in the future.
The paper is published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles.
