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Research has found that inhaling menthol helps halt cognitive decline in rats with Alzheimer’s.
A new study published in Frontiers in Immunology reports a strange discovery — when the rats with Alzheimer’s inhale menthol, your cognitive abilities improve. Everything indicates that the chemical compound can stop some of the damage caused by the disease.
Scientists have particularly noticed a decrease in interleukin-1-beta protein (IL-1β), which helps regulate the body’s inflammatory response and which can be harmful when left unchecked, writes the Science Alert.
The team believes this discovery opens the door to the use of other odors in Alzheimer’s therapies. “We focused on the role of the olfactory system in the immune and nervous systems and confirmed that menthol is an immunostimulatory odor in animal models”, explains immunologist Juan José Lasarte
“But surprisingly, we observed that short exposures to this substance over six months prevent cognitive decline in mice with Alzheimer’s and, what is more interesting, they also improved the cognitive capacity of healthy young mice”, he adds.
The team had already noticed that inhaling menthol improves the immune response of mice and new research indicates that it also improves their cognitive abilities. In addition, menthol helped normalize IL-1β protein levels again.
When researchers artificially reduced the number of regulatory T cells, which are known to help keep the immune system in tip-top shape, some of the effects were still seen, which opens the door to future treatments based on menthol.
“Both menthol exposure and T-cell blockade caused a decrease in IL-1β, a protein that may be behind the cognitive decline seen in these models. In addition, the specific blockade of this protein with a drug used to treat some autoimmune diseases also improved the cognitive capacity of healthy mice and those with Alzheimer’s”, explains neuroscientist Ana Garcia-Osta, from CIMA.
The relationships between odors and the immune system are difficult to understand, but we know that our sense of smell can strongly influence the brain. This study is a important step in understanding the connection between the immune system, the central nervous system and odors.
ZAP // 
