Introduction

Do you ever try to remember something you said a while ago but forget or lose track of what you’re doing? Memory loss can pertain to a lot of things, but it can be especially detrimental for people as they enter their senior ages. A more well known kind of memory loss illness usually found within the older generations is Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Sophia Datsen, researcher at the University of Skode claims, “Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder linked with atrophy of certain cognition related brain regions, causing severe memory, and cognitive function loss… a major hypothesis proposes its cause as the degeneration of cholinergic neurons.” (Datsen 2022). Furthermore, this cognitive disease can cause rapid memory loss, affecting cognitive memory and function loss. While research is being conducted to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, researchers are using an alternative approach to solving this problem.

Lion’s Mane Mushroom, scientifically classified as H. erinaceus, contains bioactive compounds such as hericenones and erinacines from the mycelium or the roots and fungal branches from Lion’s Mane Mushroom. Datsen writes that these bioactive compounds found within Lion’s Mane Mushroom positively yield “Nerve growth factor levels, increased neuronal survival, promoted hippocampal neurogenesis, decreased amyloid plaque build-up, and improved behavioral outcomes” (Datsen 2022). Amyloid plaque build-up within the cognitive regions being one of the primary sources for memory degeneration.

Method

Datsen uses a meta-analysis to analyze the use of H. erinaceus within pre-clinical and clinical studies in animal models with mice and human models using a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial on 50-80 year-olds diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Results

Animal Model

Datsen quotes research by Shimbo, M. who conducted H. erinaceus powder on mice resulting in an increase in nerve growth factor with daily dosages of 8mg/kg. Shimbo also discovers that H. erinaceus also enhances nerve growth factor by preventing Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), a kind of signaling pathway functioned to prohibit nerve growth factor synthesis, apoptosis, etc.

Human Model

Within the human model conducted with a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial on 50-80 year-olds diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Datsen writes how there was “noticeable improvement in cognition after supplementation with H. erinaceus” (Datsen 2022). During the long-term study of this experiment, the experimental group with H. erinaceus showed “significant improvement in cognitive function scores compared to the control group” (Datsen 2022). Furthermore, Datsen uses a table to analyze the dosages of H. erinaceus and experimental models. With an analysis of this table, overall positive trends shown within the use of H. erinaceus showed increased nerve growth factor, improved scores in functional tests examining short-term and long-term memory, language, visual construction, etc. Moreover, through several analysis and examinations of human models, H. erinaceus produced positive outcomes in terms of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological improvement with patients dealing with Alzheimer’s and decreased cognitive functions.

Discussion

I found this article so interesting because of how Alzheimer’s has become such a difficult disease to find a cure for. Reading about how fungi can produce the adequate compounds to improve neurological problems is something that can become revolutionary in Alzheimer’s research and eventually used in medicine.

Here are some questions to think about regarding this post:

• Do you think that it’s possible that the answer to the medical world’s mysteries could be found within nature?
• With your ethical concerns regarding this kind of experiment and treatment approach to Alzheimer’s?
• What kinds of neurological treatments should we focus on alongside Alzheimer’s and Dementia?

Source

Datsen, S. (2022). Lion’s mane mushroom: A fungus to remember, a novel venture into dementia therapy.