As the saying goes, growing old is awful, but it sure beats the alternative. One of the things that many people fear about getting older is the loss of mental sharpness, memory, and other things having to do with the brain. The big fear is having a condition such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia, or some other debilitating condition where you lose your mental faculties.

Fortunately, a team of researchers working at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is working on a technique that could help millions of people protect, or even restore, their mental acuity in the future, according to a study published in the journal Cell.

Their work is based on older research that showed that as people get older, their meningeal lymphatics start to slow down. The meningeal lymphatics are a network of vessels surrounding the brain. This system is critical for draining fluid and waste away from the brain itself and out to the lymph nodes so that the immune system can monitor for issues like disease and infection. As this system gets clogged up with age, the ‘waste’ from the brain cannot be disposed of efficiently.

One issues with this is that any infections or bacteria that are present then need to be handled by the immune cells in the brain rather than being ‘outsourced’ to the stronger immune cells in the rest of the body.

With this in mind, the researchers looked for a way to improve the functionality of the meningeal lymphatic system directly. This would have two primary benefits. First, it would allow the waste to be transported away from the brain and handled how it is in younger people. Second, it allows the researchers to work on improving the health of the brain without having to get around the natural blood-brain barrier that makes many medications ineffective for this area. By treating an area outside of the brain rather than the brain directly, the study proposes, it will be possible to get the desired benefits in a much simpler way.

Washington University pathology and immunology professor, Jonathan Kipnis, explained in a statement, saying:

“The physical blood-brain barrier hinders the efficacy of therapies for neurological disorders. By targeting a network of vessels outside of the brain that is critical for brain health, we see cognitive improvements in mice, opening a window to develop more powerful therapies to prevent or delay cognitive decline.”

The team already performed an experiment that showed that this treatment method is effective in mice. The experiment took mice and gave them identical block rods to play with in their cage. The next day, they gave them the same black rods as well as a silver rectangular prism. The older mice would play with both items about the same amount while the younger ones would focus on the new silver item much more. The researchers propose that it is because the older mice have already forgotten the black rods, so both objects remain novel.

When the older mice were treated to boost their lymphatic vessels, they would start playing with the silver object significantly more. This suggests that their memory had notable improvements thanks to the treatment.

In the statement, the first author of the study, Kyungdeok Kim, who is a Washington University postdoctoral fellow said:

“A functioning lymphatic system is critical for brain health and memory. Therapies that support the health of the body’s waste management system may have health benefits for a naturally aging brain.”

Additional research is needed before any potential treatments using this information would be ready for trial in humans, but it is a promising first step. Kipnis expanded on how this could work, saying:

“Targeting the more easily accessible lymphatic vessels that are located outside the brain may prove to be an exciting new frontier in the treatment of brain disorders. We may not be able to revive neurons, but we may be able to ensure their most optimal functioning through modulation of meningeal lymphatic vessels.”

This is an exciting field of research since millions of people, and their families, suffer from serious mental decline as they age. Finding a way to improve memory and overall mental acuity is essential work.

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