Injections of a natural growth factor into the brains of mice, rats and monkeys offers hope of preventing or reversing the earliest impacts of Alzheimer’s disease on memory. The benefits arose even in animals whose brains contained the hallmark plaques that clog up the brains of patients.

By delivering brain-derived neurotrophic factor BDNF directly into the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus, the parts of the brain where memories are formed then consolidated, the researchers successfully tackled damage exactly where Alzheimer’s strikes first.

Improvements happened in all the animals, including mice with a version of human Alzheimer’s disease, elderly rats and monkeys with natural degeneration, plus rats and monkeys given brain lesions similar to those seen in Alzheimer’s.

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