The University of Cambridge has ongoing research on treating degenerative diseases such as dementia. The university's UK Dementia Researcher Institute has been working with winter swimmers in cold water to study the cold-shock protein RBM3.
In 2015, a study published in the journal Nature described a protein called RBM3 that cools the body. At the same time, it triggers the prevention of losing brain cells and the connection between, a symptom of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Their ongoing experiments have revealed that regular winter swimmers contain the protein in their blood. RBM3 in mice models not only slowed down dementia but repaired damaged cells as well.
Professor Giovanna Malluci said that the protein can help develop new drug treatments for dementia. The research is still in its early stages but has focused on how mammals hibernate during the winter months.
Understanding Hibernation
As the mammal's body temperature cools down, brain cell connections or synapses are depleted. This means that there is no brain activity while the animal sleeps for up to several months so that it can survive without food. When the animal warms up after its state of hibernation, brain cell activity is restored as synapses increase.
Nearly half a million people in the UK are diagnosed with dementia. It is estimated that by 2050, one million people in the UK will develop dementia. Globally, nearly 50 million have dementia, and 10 million new patients are diagnosed each year.
RBM3 has been associated with preventing the death of brain cells, but still needs further research on how it affects synapse regeneration and degeneration. Studying the cold-shock protein may lead the team to discover how to prevent synapse loss without cooling the body.
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Testing the Cold-Shock Protein
Developing a drug that boosts the production of RBM3 might slow down or even reverse the effects of degenerative disease. RBM3 had not been previously detected in human blood until the team encountered winter swimmers.
They were compared to members of a Tai Chi club who trained near a swimming pool but were not swimmers. When both groups of athletes reached a hypothermic core temperature of 93 degrees Fahrenheit, the Cambridge swim team had elevated levels of RBM3.
The findings are yet to be published but are currently taught at online lectures such as one held by the Society of Neuroscientists of Africa. Other researchers have also discovered higher levels of the cold-shock protein in babies and hypothermic stroke patients.
Professor Malluci shared that similar to hibernating animals, humans can also produce the cold-shock protein when necessary. However, more research needs to be done to consider cold water immersion as a potential treatment for patients with dementia.
The current challenge is to discover a drug that can stimulate the production of RBM3. If the progress of dementia can be slowed even by a few years on the entire population, said Professor Malluci, "that would have an enormous impact economically and health-wise."
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