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Glanzman, a cellular neuroscientist, and his colleagues report that they have eliminated, or at least substantially weakened, a long-term memory in both the marine snail known as Aplysia and neurons in a Petri dish.
The researchers say they gaining important insights into the cell biology of long-term memory. They discovered that the long-term memory for sensitization in the marine snail can be erased by inhibiting the activity of a specific protein kinase — a class of molecules that modifies proteins by chemically adding to them a phosphate (an inorganic chemical), which changes the proteins’ structure and activity.
The protein kinase is called PKM (protein kinase M), a member of the class known as protein kinase C (PKC), which is associated with memory.
The research has important potential implications for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as drug addiction, in which memory plays an important role, and perhaps Alzheimer’s disease and other long-term memory disorders.
This new research opens the door to learning how the changes in synaptic connections are maintained and what role PKM plays in this memory maintenance. [Source].