The rats were treated with what’s described as a “plasma fraction treatment” from young rats. The authors aren’t specifying what it is.
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Improving performance on learning mazes in aged rats is also not unique.
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You can do it with substance P: https://cyber.sci-hub.tw/MTAuMTAwNy9iZjAyMjUzNzEy/10.1007@BF02253712.pdf …
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Or with etazolate: https://www.ndineuroscience.com/userfiles/Etazolate%20EU%20J%20PHARM%202010-4.pdf …
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Basically, improving cognition in aged rodents, even all the way down to young levels, is not that unusual. And doesn’t always translate to humans. (Neuroprotective drugs have a really bad translation track record.)
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I still think it’s a good sign! But keep in mind that lab rats are kept in the rat equivalent of prison. You can improve cognitive performance just by giving them an exercise wheel or toys or other rats to interact with.
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Also of course there are lots of interventions that reduce inflammation, oxidative stress, and blood glucose and lipids. Dietary restriction being the most famous.
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The “wow factor” on this paper seems to be from the fact that it claims reversal on epigenetic clocks. And epigenetic clocks are (IMHO) bad.
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Even if you disagree, epigenetic clocks are *new*. The reason a bajillion other interventions haven’t been found to improve them isn’t because few things work but because few things have been tested on these new metrics.
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My reaction is “ok, add this mystery intervention to the list of ~100 things that seem like they might do something to aging symptoms in mammals”. I’m not sure where Josh Mitteldorf’s extreme endorsement is coming from here.
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End of conversation
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