Dopamine Hypothesis For AAMI?

Age-associated memory impairment, the gradual decline in memory that accompanies normal aging, may be related to a fall-off in the levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, according to primate studies published in the May issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The prefrontal cortex is thought to be involved in short-term or working memory.

This is the first experimental evidence to point to an involvement of dopamine in cognitive deficits in the elderly. To date, most attempts to halt or reverse mental decline with aging or neurodegenerative disease have focused on manipulating acetylcholine (eg, with cholinesterase inhibitors such as tacrine), which is markedly depleted in Alzheimer's patients for example. If the dopamine hypothesis is correct, manipulating dopamine may offer another means of using drug therapy to combat cognitive declines due to aging or disease.

- In the same issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, scientists report that the neurodegeneration which occurs in Huntington's disease is characteristic of programmed cell death (apoptosis). This is the first indication of a potential drug target for the disease.