Browsing medical literature and found something I

Browsing medical literature and found something I worth sharing with cydy folks who want to get smarter.

"...Alcino Silva, a prominent researcher of learning and memory at UCLA and long-time collaborator of Dr. Carmichael, identified a new molecule that enhances learning and memory in mice. This molecule, called “CCR5”, was unexpected for a memory molecule, because its previous function was identified in the immune system . Blocking CCR5 improved learning and memory in a dramatic way in mice. This work was published in the high impact journal Elife.

Second, Drs. Silva and Carmichael reasoned that CCR5 might have an effect in stroke recovery because of how it stimulated memory function. They launched a fully separate and independent set of studies, an orthogonal experiment, to determine if this molecule improved recovery in stroke. Blocking CCR5 did improve stroke recovery in mice in a quite substantial way. CCR5 has a naturally occurring gene mutation in people. This mutation, termed the “delta32” mutation, produces a loss of function in the gene. In a third orthogonal experiment, the Carmichael Lab teamed up with a research group in Israel to determine if patients with this delta32 mutation in CCR5 have better recovery of function after stroke. The findings in mice would predict that they would. This turned out to be the case— patients with the CCR5 mutation recovered better from stroke. A final part of this story is that CCR5 blockers are already developed in medicine as drugs. One such drug is called maraviroc.

https://www.uclahealth.org/neurology/brain-re...ical-trial