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Rescuing Age-Related Proteolysis Deficits With Methylene Blue, Shane E. Pullins

Theses and Dissertations

The average lifespan is constantly increasing with the advent of new medical techniques, and age-related cognitive decline is becoming a prevalent societal issue. Even during healthy aging, humans and rats exhibit progressive deficits in episodic/declarative memory. In laboratory rats, age-related memory impairment can be assessed with trace fear conditioning (TFC). Recent research implicates ubiquitin proteasome system-mediated protein degradation in the synaptic plasticity supporting memory formation and retrieval. In rats, aging leads to decreased basal proteolytic activity in brain structures known to support the acquisition and retrieval of trace fear memories, and our preliminary data suggests activity-dependent proteasome activity declines in …