Researchers at the University of Queensland have revealed the crucial role of saturated fatty acids in the brain’s consolidation of memories.
Dr Isaac Akefe from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute has uncovered the molecular mechanism and identified the genes underlying the memory creation process, opening the door to a potential treatment for neurodegenerative disorders.
“We’ve shown previously that levels of saturated fatty acids increase in the brain during neuronal communication, but we didn’t know what was causing these changes,” Dr Akefe said.
“Now for the first time, we’ve identified alterations in the brain’s fatty acid landscape when the neurons encode a memory.
“An enzyme called Phospholipase A1 (PLA1) interacts with another protein at the synapse called STXBP1 to form saturated fatty acids.”
The brain is the body’s fattiest organ, with fatty compounds called lipids making up…
