But how does a drug used to treat respiratory and circulatory illnesses help the brain remember?
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00:00You've probably heard the phrase miracle drug before, with some pharmaceutical providing
00:07some fantastical cure to an oft maligning ailment.
00:11But now neuroscientists with the University of Groningen in the Netherlands might have
00:14found just that, as they have been able to restore lost memories for the first time.
00:19Memories are chemically encoded on the brain, so researchers were looking to unlock lost
00:23memories by reactivating those particular neural structures.
00:26Memory deprivation is a known cause of memory loss, as it's required for the hippocampus
00:30to consolidate and store new memories.
00:32So researchers induced amnesia in mice by disallowing them sleep for a period of time,
00:37later reactivating memories in their brains via light, meaning they regained the lost
00:41memories if the physical part of the brain was kickstarted.
00:44But light therapy is invasive, which is why they decided to give the memory retrieval
00:47a nudge with pharmaceuticals as well.
00:50They administered a drug called Ruflumilast, usually used to treat chronic obstructive
00:54pulmonary disease, to the amnesia-induced mice, finding that the drug was able to chemically
00:59kickstart the memory retrieval, with effects lasting for 5 days after administering it.
01:04Meaning we could be one step closer to figuring out how to regain lost memories.