Bartus R T
Science. 1979 Nov 30;206(4422):1087-9. doi: 10.1126/science.227061.
The effect of physostigmine on recent memory was evaluated in young and aged rhesus monkeys. All aged monkeys had previously shown impaired memory. The performance of the young monkeys treated with physostigmine was similar to that recently reported for young humans--no effects at low doses, some improvement at a restricted range of doses, and deficits at the highest dose. Although the aged subjects also improved at the same general doses, their overall response as a group was much more variable than that of the younger subjects. The performance of some aged monkeys was impaired by low doses that did not affect young monkeys. Continued improvement was observed in some aged monkeys at the highest dose, which typically impaired young monkeys. These variable effects across aged subjects suggest that physostigmine cannot easily or reliably be used as an agent for treating geriatric cognition. Nevertheless, the differential age-related effects suggest that appropriate manipulation of the cholinergic system may eventually be developed to alleviate some of the cognitive impairments suffered by aged subjects.
在幼年和老年恒河猴身上评估了毒扁豆碱对近期记忆的影响。所有老年猴子之前都表现出记忆受损。用毒扁豆碱治疗的幼年猴子的表现与最近报道的年轻人类相似——低剂量时无影响，在一定剂量范围内有一些改善，而在最高剂量时有缺陷。尽管老年受试者在相同的一般剂量下也有改善，但作为一个群体，他们的总体反应比年轻受试者的变化大得多。一些低剂量对幼年猴子没有影响，却会损害老年猴子的表现。在最高剂量时，一些老年猴子持续改善，而这一剂量通常会损害幼年猴子。老年受试者的这些不同影响表明，毒扁豆碱不能轻易或可靠地用作治疗老年认知的药物。然而，与年龄相关的差异效应表明，最终可能会通过对胆碱能系统进行适当的调控来缓解老年受试者所遭受的一些认知障碍。
