Cancer Drug Helps Sharpen Memory

Could a cancer drug actually make your memory sharper?

Researchers found that when they administered the drug RGFP966 to rats, they were more attuned to what they were hearing and able to retain and even remember more information, overall.

In those dealing with the onset of Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, brain cells begin to shrink and die as the synapses that transfer information from one neuron to the next lose their strength. And unfortunately, while there are treatments to slow the progression of the disease, there is no cure and no way to reverse the problem. Yet this HDAC inhibitor, which is currently being used in various cancer therapies to block the activation of genes that transform normal cells into cancerous ones, may one day be used for such purposes.

Researchers found that the drug helps to make the neurons more receptive to connections and even enhances their ability to form memories. Furthermore, they also discovered that when used on the laboratory rats, the rodents remembered certain music following the study that they had been taught when receiving a reward. Lastly, they discovered that the rodents were more "tuned in" to certain acoustic signals that they heard during the training.

"People learning to speak again after a disease or injury as well as those undergoing cochlear implantation to reverse previous deafness, may be helped by this type of therapeutic treatment in the future," said Kasia M. Bieszczad, lead author and assistant professor in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology, in a news release. "The application could even extend to people with delayed language learning abilities or people trying to learn a second language."

"People normally remember an experience with limited detail -- not everything we see, hear and feel is remembered," she said. "What has happened here is that memory becomes closer to a snapshot of the actual experience instead of being sparse, limited or inaccurate."

The findings were published in the Journal of Neuroscience. 

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