OXR1: The Link Between Calorie Intake and Brain Ageing

Unraveling the mysteries of the human brain is impossible. However, researchers at the Buck Institute for Research on Ageing in Novato, California, have found a connection between calorie intake and brain ageing. The research, published recently in the science journal Nature Communications, states that by restricting calorie intake, one can prevent the brain from ageing. 

Medical science has not achieved the kind of precision and competency required to understand the human brain, nor is it likely to do so in the near future. As we age, so does our brain. But the research shows that determining the age of our brain is in our hands.

Shocked! Well, don’t be. 

Brain Studies: Why is the human brain so complex?

Despite great advancements in medical sciences today, we are still in the dark when it comes to brain function. Scientists and researchers are still trying to understand how our brain works; how it comprehends our environment by combining the various sights, sounds and smells it encompasses; how it perceives images or how it analyses a given situation.

As Stephen Smith, a neuroscientist working with the Allen Institute, states, “An electron is complicated. But when it comes to the brain, that simple statement acquires a whole new resonance. It’s complicated enough to somehow explain all the richness of the human experience as we know it: All of our feelings, all of our subjective experience, all of human history, human art, human science. Wars, love, greed. The brain is at the root of all those things. Is it appealing to think that a simple machine, easy to understand, could explain all those things? I don’t think so.”

But efforts are on to unravel the mysteries of the brain, and new findings regarding its functions are reported from time to time. For instance, children who undergo hemispherectomy can lead a normal life as their brain takes over the functions of the part that has been removed.

Brain Origins and Stats

To understand the human brain, one needs to first determine how it originated, which is again shrouded in mystery and scientists are working on it from different angles.

The human brain has over 86 billion neurons, and the number of synapses, the meeting point of two neurons, is estimated to be nearly a quadrillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000. And each individual synapse has from a few to thousands of synaptic connections. Also, not all neurons are equal. Scientists are still figuring out how many different kinds of neurons and synapses a human brain has.

Scientists have traced the evolution of the neuron and the synapse to more than 600 million years ago. However, the question remains: how did animals sense their environments before that?

According to a report by science and health writer Rachel Tompa, published on alleninstitute.org/news, the “molecules that enabled this early learning — the molecules that diffuse from one cell to many other cells — still exist in our brains today. They’re known as neuropeptides or neuromodulators, and while they’ve been somewhat overlooked in favor of the more tractable synapse, (Smith believes) they could hold important clues about how our brains work.”

The Link Between Calorie Intake and Brain Ageing

It is a known fact that eating right, forming social relationships, physical activity and stress management can enhance brain function and reduce its ageing. However, a recent finding says that restricting calories can actually prevent the brain from ageing.

Researchers at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging have identified a specific gene that, when enhanced through calorie restriction, can aid “processes necessary for healthy brain aging”.

The researchers used both fruit fly models and human cells to analyse how calorie restriction affected the ageing of the brain. Scientists also found that the OXR1 gene impacts the retromer. Retromer is a protein complex that sorts proteins and decides which ones can be reused by the body.

According to Dr. Lisa Ellerby, professor at the institute, “recycling is important in our daily life. A cell does a similar process — it needs to recycle damaged components. The retromer is a cellular complex known to recycle proteins and lipids. It was surprising [that] a protein known as OXR1 [expressed by the OXR1 gene] is involved in the retromer function,” she continued. “In past research, this protein was thought to be involved in responding to oxidative stress or detoxification.”

The finding is crucial in the face of rising neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases around the world, and further research in this field will be helpful in determining what dietary restrictions can help prevent the development, or restrict the progression, of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

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