Sports-Cheat Drug Can Improve Memory Functions

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A drug used to increase blood production in both medical treatments and athletic doping scandals seems also to improve memory in those using it. say a group of researchers, who suggest that erythropoietin (EPO) may hold prospects for the treatment of certain brain ailments.

The research, shows that the memory enhancing effects of erythropoietin (EPO) are not related to its effects on blood production but due to direct influences on neurons in the brain. These findings begin to shed light on the mechanisms of improvements in cognition seen in patients with schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis as a result of treatment with this drug

Patients given EPO to treat chronic kidney failure had been observed to have improved cognition after starting the drug. To investigate the mechanisms of EPO-enhanced cognition, the researchers injected mice with EPO every other day for three weeks (11 doses) to test the effects of long-term exposure. After the treatment period, mice given EPO had better memory in some situations than did mice that had been given a placebo instead.

The improvement in memory lasted up to three weeks from the last EPO dose and outlasted increased blood-cell production, but had disappeared by four weeks. Mice given three doses saw no benefit with respect to memory improvement.

The specific memory improvements were associated with the hippocampus, a structure in the brain involved in learning and memory, among other functions. The researchers did a series of experiments on hippocampal tissue taken from the mice and found that EPO directly affected the neurons in this structure.

"EPO had pronounced effects on short-term and long-term plasticity in the hippocampus as well as on synaptic transmission", the researchers report. The research has been published in the open access journal BMC Biology.

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