Drug used in aid for cancer treatment linked to sharpening memory

A specific candidate from a class of drugs in cancer treatment has been found to be able to sharpen information in the brain and enhance long-term memory, a critical finding for Alzheimer’s research.

This class of drugs works at the level of changing gene expression, which is important because these drugs can change which genes can become expressed or how much they become expressed, said Kasia Bieszczad, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology.

“The reason it is used in cancer is because often one of the things the cell has to do in order to become cancerous is change how it (works),” she said. “If we can kind of change what a cancer cell is doing, then maybe we can stop it from actually activating genes that make it cancerous and make it back into a normal cell."

These drugs came into the neuroscience field from the aspect of trying to control gene expression because gene expression in learning and memory appears to be critical for a memory to form in the long term — greater than a day, week or longer, Bieszczad said.

In an experiment investigating these drugs for their control of gene expression, Bieszczad said her lab gave animals a task to learn and asked them through behavioral tests about what they learned.

“What was interesting is the animals that were given the drug told us that they remembered a lot more about the sounds — exactly which frequencies they were, how loud they were, the fact that there were multiple sounds, that they did not just have to remember one,” Bieszczad said. “So they remembered more, and in more detail, about the training stimulus.”

They interpreted the findings to mean that this drug enhances and sharpens information, which can be put into long-term memory, Bieszczad said.

“And that seems to be really one of the major problems in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, which is that people can behave in the world and act in the world, but they can’t make new memories. That’s where the link is,” Bieszczad said.

Anything that helps toward preventing Alzheimer's is very important, given it is safe, said Laura Reilly, a School of Arts and Sciences senior.

Reilly, who used to work in an Alzheimer's ward, said it was difficult seeing the effects that the disease had on patients and their families. 

“If Rutgers is a part of the research that ends up combating Alzheimer's, that would be a wonderful thing," Reilly said.

Bieszczad noted how the research is still in the early stages. It has only been around 10 years since the mechanisms of the disease have been investigated in the brain.

“One of the most exciting aspects of this is that we’re looking at animals that are adults, and we are seeing that this drug is changing how their brain is wired. And I think that it’s kind of unleashing the capacity for the brain to be plastic,” she said.

Bieszczad's lab is devoted to understanding these mechanisms.

“Because one of the questions, for example, is if this drug is changing gene expression, and an obvious question to ask is, ‘which gene? Which genes are the ones that are critical that are targeted by this drug that enhance memory?” she said.

Bieszczad's lab can learn more about memory making from understanding which genes are important for long-term memory and trying to design drugs that target those genes specifically.

“(The importance is) how much we can learn from animal research. We can design behavioral tasks in animals that allow us to understand things that can relate to the human condition,” Bieszczad said.

One extension of this work is in the auditory domain, where these animals are learning about sounds and researchers are finding that the drug enhances their memory for sound, Bieszczad said.

“Well in the human condition, sounds are really important to us, especially for things like language. And if you have specific memories for the sounds of language, well that could be a good thing,” she said.

There is a huge undergraduate research community in the Department of Psychology, Bieszczad said.

“Every level of the Rutgers community contributes to this kind of work,” she said.