An international team, led by the University of Queensland, says it's, in fact, one step closer to developing new therapies for treating dementia, reported 'The Journal of Neuroscience' in its latest edition.
Team leader Dr Jana Vukovic said the work was aimed at understanding the molecular mechanism that may impair learning and memory in the ageing population.
"Ageing slows the production of new nerve cells, reducing the brain's ability to form new memories. But our research shows for the first time that the brain cells usually responsible for mediating immunity, microglia, have an inhibitory effect on memory during ageing.
"Furthermore, they have shown that a molecule produced by nerve cells, fractalkine, can reverse this process and stimulate stem cells to produce new neurons," he said.
The discovery came after the scientists observed that the increased production of new neurons in mice that were actively running was due to the release of fractalkine in the hippocampus -- the brain structure responsible for specific types of learning and memory, a release said. (MORE)