HIV drug could fend off early-onset dementia, new research suggests

Helping people to form links between different memories could stave off declining brain function, reports Joe Middleton

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An HIV drug could fend off early onset dementia in middle-aged people by helping them make links between different memories, new research suggests.

Our brains do not often record single memories but instead store them in groups, meaning that thinking about a specific incident can prompt us into remembering other things that are linked to it.

As we age this linking ability lessens, but scientists believe a drug called maraviroc could hold the solution to declining brain function and our ability to remember.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles focused on a gene called CCR5 that encodes the CCR5 receptor, the same one HIV uses to enter brain cells and cause memory loss in AIDS sufferers.

The team had already found the gene reduces our ability to recall memories. For the new study, the researchers found a key mechanism that enables mice to link their memories of two different cages.

A tiny microscope allowed the scientists to see into the creatures’ brains, allowing them to observe neurons firing and creating new memories.

Increasing the amount of CCR5 in the brains of middle aged mice interfered with their memories and led the creatures to forget the connection between the two cages.

When the scientists deleted the CCR5 gene in the mice, they were able to link memories that normal mice could not.

Maraviroc was found to suppress the amount of CCR5 in the mice’s brains and helped older mice to link memories again.

Study author Professor Alcino Silva said: “Our memories are a huge part of who we are.

“The ability to link related experiences teaches how to stay safe and operate successfully in the world.

“Our next step will be to organise a clinical trial to test maraviroc’s influence on early memory loss with the goal of early intervention.

“Once we fully understand how memory declines, we possess the potential to slow down the process.”

The findings were published in the journal Nature.