Is the cure for Alzheimer in your womb?

A protein found in umbilical cord blood might help reversing the clock on mental aging, according to Yahoo News.

A study made by researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine found that human umbilical cord blood is able to rejuvenate learning and memory in older mice. The researchers identified a protein that is abundant in human cord blood whose presence in the body decreases with old age that had the same effect when injected in animals.

The results of the study might open new horizons for treatments for ade-associated declines in mental ability. Senior author Tony Wiss-Coray said: “Neuroscientists have ignored it and are still ignoring it, but to me it’s remarkable that something in your blood can influence the way you think.”

This study offers the first demonstration that human plasma can help older mice with their memory and learning. This would increase the likelihood that it could have a similar beneficial effect in people, according to Wiss-Coray and lead author Joseph Castellano.

The researchers compared blood plasma from 19 to 24 year-olds and 61 to 82 year olds and umbilical cords and found age-associated changes in a number of proteins.

They think that the changes could affect a brain structure called the hippocampus, which is responsible for converting experiences into long-term memories. The hippocampus helps with remembering spatial information and information regarding autobiographical events.

“With advancing age, the hippocampus degenerates, loses nerve cells and shrinks,” Wyss-Coray said.

The deterioration of the hippocampus is an early symptom of Alzheimer’s disease.

In order to differentiate between the effects of old, young and youngest human blood on hippocampal function, the researchers used mice that were immune-deficient, which means they could be given repeated injections of human plasma without experiencing negative immune reactions.

Old immune-deficient mice didn’t perform as good as their younger counterparts on tests of memory and learning. When the older mice received human umbilical-cord plasma every fourth day for two weeks, the hippocampal function improved drastically.

Plasma from older people didn’t help at all, while young plasma had an intermediate effect.

A protein from the umbilical cord, called tissue inhibitor of metalloproteases 2, or TIMP2, is responsible for making old brains act younger. Injecting only TIMP2 into elderly mice duplicated the benefits of umbilical-cord plasma.

Moreover, it restored the old mice’s nesting capacity.

“TIMP2’s effects in the brain have been studied a little, but not much and not in aging,” said Castellano. “In our study, it mimicked the memory and learning effects we were getting with cord plasma. And it appeared to do that by improving hippocampal function.”