Age-associated Cognitive Decline: Insights into Molecular Switches and Recovery Avenues.
Age-associated cognitive decline is an inevitable phenomenon that predisposes individuals for neurological and psychiatric disorders eventually affecting the quality of life. Scientists have endeavored to identify the key molecular switches that drive cognitive decline with advancing age. These newly identified molecules are then targeted as recovery of cognitive aging and related disorders. Cognitive decline during aging is multi-factorial and amongst several factors influencing this trajectory, gene expression changes are pivotal. Identifying these genes would elucidate the neurobiological underpinnings as well as offer clues that make certain individuals resilient to withstand the inevitable age-related deteriorations. Our laboratory has focused on this aspect and investigated a wide spectrum of genes involved in crucial brain functions that attribute to senescence induced cognitive deficits. We have recently identified master switches in the epigenome regulating gene expression alteration during brain aging. Interestingly, these factors when manipulated by chemical or genetic strategies successfully reverse the age-related cognitive impairments. In the present article, we review findings from our laboratory and others combined with supporting literary evidences on molecular switches of brain aging and their potential as recovery targets.
Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India; CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi 110025, India.
Arpita
A
Konar
Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.
Padmanabh
P
Singh
Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.
Mahendra K
MK
Thakur
brain aging; cognitive decline; gene expression; molecular mechanism; recovery