#pkmzeta

[apothecandy-blog]

Page 464 of the September issue of Elle is what I consider to be one "hot read". Of course when I picked up the magazine at work a couple days ago, I was totally judging it by its cover. I did not expect to find an article like "The Spotless Mind" by Lauren Slater within this fashion picture book for the grown women. The article started talking about memory research for Alzheimer's patients and then delved into how an off-label use of the drug propanolol could help those with PTSD. 

According to Dr. Alain Brunet, a professor of psychiatry at McGill University, he thinks that this common drug (Propanolol) could be an effective mental eraser for those suffering from PTSD. Propanolol is commonly used to treat high blood pressure and it works by blocking the action of norepinephrine (noradrenaline for yall Aussies & Brits) which is also responsible for the adrenaline surge upon being startled. The idea is stop the surge, stop the stress response. The effect of the pill is not to destroy the memory but rather to alter the emotional overtones. Drug companies have to reformulate propanolol so it is more specific to PTSD symptoms but I have a feeling someone is going to put their R & D to good use and formulate a whole new drug, with a new name, and market it as a brand name drug to bring in that cash money. 

From a molecular standpoint on the whole forgetting the bad memories, a neuroscientist who goes by Dr. Todd Sacktor is purifying a molecule called PKMzeta from protein kinase C because he believes that it plays a role in memory storage. He did an experiment where he injected his rats with ZIP (zeta-interacting protein which interferes with PKMzeta production) and his rats completely forgot how to perform their tasks at paw which resulted in them getting shocked. ZIP, unlike Propanolol, completely wiped out the memories to the point where they weren't even intact. He is currently working on selectively slicing out traumatic association areas in the brain so that he can put his newly purified molecule to good use.

When I was reading this bit on Sacktor, I wondered why docs don't just utilize Ecstasy to get rid of those traumatic experiences. Compared to Sacktor's ZIP, Ecstasy would be a more ethical alternative as weird as that sounds. But imagine is some dirty guy at a club slipped some ZIP in your drink. That would be pretty damn cruel. 

So with ZIP completely cancelling a memory, there is a hypothesis out there that says that PKMzeta, it's alter-drug-ego, might enhance memory. According to Sacktor, "It's just an idea, at this stage". We just have to find the mechanism of action, determine the side effects and get the FDA to approve the ingredient and later the drug. 

With the information overload that is prevalent in our world today, people are desperate to find a memory enhancing magical candy. I don't blame them for wanting to take in everything that is thrown at them. Nobody wants to burn a wax tablet too fast...

[itsokaytobesmart]

The Forgetting Pill: Can We Erase Painful Memories?

If you could take a pill that would erase any memory, would you take it? Traumatic memories can be painful, debilitating baggage, persisting for decades and often difficult to control. Previous therapies involved discussing traumatic memories in detail, but new models of the elastic and networked basis of memory have demonstrated that this isn't effective. Jonah Lehrer writes in Wired:

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, people have imagined memories to be a stable form of information that persists reliably. The metaphors for this persistence have changed over time—Plato compared our recollections to impressions in a wax tablet, and the idea of a biological hard drive is popular today—but the basic model has not. Once a memory is formed, we assume that it will stay the same. This, in fact, is why we trust our recollections. They feel like indelible portraits of the past.

None of this is true. In the past decade, scientists have come to realize that our memories are not inert packets of data and they don’t remain constant. Even though every memory feels like an honest representation, that sense of authenticity is the biggest lie of all.

However, a "memory" is not a "thing", in the usual sense of the word. It is an experience, in our brain, that we replay.

We have new understanding that the formation of memories is utterly dependent on biological processes, on proteins that help write new connections in our neural network. When we "re-fire" this network, we "recall" a memory. What if we could block the proteins that write the connections? Could we truly forget?

New research is getting close to just that. In rats, drugs can block the function of a key protein (PKMzeta) involved in strengthening memory synapses. The effect is preventing experiences from being reinforced. In a sense, one can forget that small neural web, and the memory that it encodes.

When we begin to view memory as relative, as dependent on a constant flux of neural networks, it calls into question what is "true". And the ethics of taking a "forgetting" pill are just as murky. It turns out that our assumption that we can't choose what to remember or forget is wrong, and soon we might have the power to make that choice. Would you?

For more, check out Jonah Lehrer's full article, and this series on PKMzeta from Ed Yong. 

(via Wired Magazine, image by Dwight Eschliman)

[createandcurate]

If you're struggling to remember the names of classmates from high school, or just can't forget that time you made a complete ass of yourself in front of your high school crush, then a single molecule known as PKMzeta could be to blame – and increasing or decreasing its activity in the brain could either help you remember those names that seem on the tip of your tongue or drive that embarrassing memory from your head. In a new study, researchers have demonstrated that a memory in rats can either be enhanced or erased long after it is formed by manipulating the activity of the brain enzyme PKMzeta.