A DRUG that prevents immune rejection in human transplant patients has improved the memory of mice with a hereditary learning disorder. The finding suggests the disorder is a result of reversible abnormalities in brain chemistry rather than irreversible differences in architecture, as was previously assumed.
Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a genetic disease that causes memory and learning problems. The drug rapamycin is known to interact with an enzyme that makes proteins needed for memory – as well as suppressing immune cells – so Alcino Silva and his colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, wondered if it might have…
