Memory enhancement by ferulic acid ester across species.
Cognitive impairments can be devastating for quality of life, and thus, preventing or counteracting them is of great value. To this end, the present study, published in Science Advances, exploits the potential of the plant Rhodiola rosea and identifies the constituent ferulic acid eicosyl ester FAE-20 as a memory enhancer.
The scientists show that food supplementation with dried root material from R. rosea dose-dependently improves odor-taste reward associative memory scores in larval Drosophila and prevents the age-related decline of this appetitive memory in adult flies. Besides, a list of candidate compounds has been derived, including R. rosea-derived FAE-20. Here, the scientists show that both R. rosea-derived FAE-20 and synthetic FAE‑20 are effective as memory enhancers in larval Drosophila. Furthermore, they show the positive impact on mice memory. Given these effects, and given the utility of R. rosea as a memory enhancer, these results may hold potential for clinical applications.
Reference:
Birgit Michels, Hanna Zwaka, Ruth Bartels, Oleh Lushchak, Katrin Franke, Thomas Endres, Markus Fendt, Inseon Song, May Bakr, Tuvshinjargal Budragchaa, Bernhard Westermann, Dushyant Mishra, Claire Eschbach, Stefanie Schreyer, Annika Lingnau, Caroline Vahl, Marike Hilker, Randolf Menzel, Thilo Kähne, Volkmar Leßmann, Alexander Dityatev, Ludger Wessjohann, Bertram Gerber. (2018) Memory enhancement by ferulic acid ester across species. Science Advances DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat6994
