Release date: 2010-10-26
"Pig brain" may cure "human brain" We often use "pig brain" to describe a person who is clumsy and unresponsive. In fact, this may be a misunderstanding. The pig brain may not only be stupid, but it can even be used to treat the diseases of our brains – such as dementia.
Zhang Zhangyun and Zhang Taiping, two key teachers of the National Key Laboratory of Medicine Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, used pig brain extract to treat rats with Alzheimer's disease and found that pig brain extract It can really improve the learning and memory ability of dementia rats.
Can pig brain cure human brain?
At least in the mouse, Zhang Heyun, a teacher at the School of Life Sciences of Nanjing University, told the reporter that although many people think that pigs are stupid, in fact, in animals, the IQ of pigs is not ranked, and trained pigs can even serve as some "high intelligence." "jobs.
"We all know that different organisms have different genes. The gene homology between pigs and humans is very high, reaching more than 80%." Zhang Heyun said.
In fact, it is quite a lot when I use pigs in medicine. We also have cases of bioartificial liver in pigs in Nanjing. â€
The treatment of "pig brain" is of course encephalopathy, and it is still a famous and incomprehensive disease - Alzheimer's disease, which is Alzheimer's disease.
There has been no particularly effective response to these diseases. Until 2008, foreign scholars proposed two feasible ways - since Alzheimer's disease destroys the advanced cognitive functions of humans, either develop an enhancer to enhance cognitive function or develop a block Inhibitors of further impaired cognitive function, aiming to delay the course of the disease, improve the condition, and preferably improve the cognitive function of the patient. The idea of ​​pig brain extract is coming from here.
Zhang Heyun and Zhang Taiping chose a batch of pig brains. After a series of crushing, separation and purification, a mixture was obtained. The medicine is there, and the next step is to verify the efficacy. The two teachers chose the test rats to destroy their brains by injecting drugs into the brain regions of these rats, especially those closely related to advanced cognitive functions, and turning them into a batch. Dementia patients."
“Before the model of dementia was caused, we first trained these rats, such as electric shocks in the Y-type maze, so that they can learn and remember how to avoid electric shocks. These rats are well trained when the intelligence is normal. Complete the task. After destroying their brains, these rats will continue to make mistakes even if they are shocked." Zhang Heyun told reporters.
At this time, the researchers used pig brain extracts for these dementia rats. After grouping dementia rats, rats in the drug-administered group were given different doses of pig brain extract every day; rats in the prevention group started using pig brain extract before the brain was destroyed to verify drug prevention. There is also a group of control rats fed only normal saline for comparison.
10 days, 20 days, 30 days... After continuing to use the pig brain extract for dementia rats, a miracle appeared. Rats in the drug-administered group and the preventive group, whether it was a labyrinth test or a platform test, the number of errors was significantly reduced, and the laboratory test results in the cerebral cortex were also more desirable; while the rats in the control group were still demented. What is more noteworthy is that the rats in the prevention group are better than other groups in all aspects, which indicates that the pig brain extract can not only treat Alzheimer's disease, but also effectively prevent the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease.
The pig brain is so god-like?
Or the results of the regulation of β-amyloid metabolism experiments made both teachers happy. "Although this research is still in the laboratory stage, it is mainly animal experiments, and there is still a distance from the human body. But this is quite a human Hope. The pig brain is easy to source and the price is not high. If it can be applied to the human body, it can help many people. And through the steps of virus inactivation, we can further reduce the risk of pig brain extract on the human body, let it safer."
Can the pig brain be so god-like? Zhang Heyun analyzed, "We think there are several possibilities. First, there are many biologically active substances in the pig brain. For example, enkephalin is a neurotrophic factor, which is definitely protective for the brain. It may also be because the extract of the pig brain has a favorable effect on the production and metabolism of a substance called β-amyloid in the brain."
The so-called beta-amyloid substance is now recognized as one of the main culprits of Alzheimer's disease. If this amyloid protein accumulates in the brain, it will "entangle" the neurons and produce toxic effects, which will eventually cause dementia. In many patients with Alzheimer's disease, an increase in the expression of β-amyloid in the brain has been observed.
"It is generally believed that an enzyme should be responsible for regulating the production, decomposition and metabolism of these proteins. If the activity of the regulatory enzyme is reduced and the regulation is problematic, then the beta-amyloid substance may be harmful to the human brain. The active substances in the extract may play a role in these enzymes, improve their regulatory functions, thereby improving brain condition and reducing dementia performance," Zhang Heyun said.
Is it easy to eat pig brain?
It’s not as good as drinking tea and eating fruit. Some citizens may not be able to bear it: since the pig’s brain is so good, let’s eat the pig brain every day. The so-called “shape-to-shape†can help us prevent old age. dementia?
For this, the two teachers Zhang regretted that the estimated effect is not great.
"In the process of extracting pig brain, there is an important point that the environment cannot be changed drastically. For example, high temperature, radiation, or changes in environmental pH may destroy the active substance in the extract; if the activity is lost, then These substances also do not play their due role." Teacher Zhang Taiping told reporters.
If you want to eat through the diet, no matter how you burn, the pig's brain is cooked at high temperatures, which may lead to a good wish to "eat brain and brain". In addition, even if the pig's brain enters your stomach safely, those substances may lose activity in the acidic environment of the stomach. "In the test, we must make the extract into enteric particles and then feed it to the rats, that is, to ensure that the drug can pass through the stomach acid safely and directly absorbed in the intestine. However, in general household cooking, this cannot be achieved. I am afraid I still have to resort to drugs. Moreover, the cholesterol content in the pig brain is extremely high. If I eat it every day, I can eat a high blood fat."
But don't be discouraged, the two teachers told reporters that in fact, the hottest object of another kind of research in the world - antioxidants, is also helpful in preventing Alzheimer's disease.
These substances come from a wider range of sources. For example, vitamin C is derived from a large number of fruits and vegetables. Vitamin E is abundant in nuts. Tea polyphenols can be ingested as long as they drink tea, while flavonoids are more related to soybeans, hawthorn, grapes and even dark chocolate. close. "If you really want to eat, eat more fruits, vegetables, nuts, the effect may be better than eating pig brain."
Source: Jinling Evening News
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