Women's brains and the relation to estrogen levels (BDNF)

On September 10th Dr. Meharvan Singh, Vice Dean of research for Stritch School of Medicine came in to present his research on the effects of hormones on the brain, how it affects women along with eliciting neurodegenerative diseases as we age. It was discussed that estrogen enhances cognitive performance. Estrogens also responsible for the increase in neurotrophins and it also protects neurons against insults. However, women are at risk for degenerative diseases by being deprived of estrogen especially when women undergo menopause. In some of Dr. Singh's studies, rats would be used to measure the hormone inhibition of estrogen and progesterone if they removed the ovaries. The study illustrated that inhibition of BDNF decreased. This protein is very critical to the hippocampus as it pertains to the formation and loss of memory.It's also crucial for supporting the brain and protecting them against cell death. Dr. Singh expressed that the decrease in neural levels of BDNF over time will affect the production estrogen by being less efficient. As estrogen levels decrease, women are susceptible to a neurodegenerative disease because the proteins can no longer be inhibited.

In the article, " Specific BDNF Mutation May Be Linked to Higher Risk of Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Study Suggests," By Catrina Silva demonstrates the effects of BDNF protein and how it may lead to neural diseases such as Parkinson's. Catrina states that " Specific BDNF gene mutation called Val66Met that results in the change of valine (Val) by a methionine (Met) at position 66 - both amino acids, also known as the protein's building blocks - could be linked to cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease. It was discussed in this article that BDNF mutation involves the proteins Val and Met change position in nucleotide sequencing which led to the third position of the 66 sequencing nucleotide to be mutated. 

Dr. Singh also emphasized even though women are likely to experience some type of neural disease, it can be inferred women who take vitamins/supplements will be able to slow down the effects of the decreasing BDNF protein, making it possible to not exhibit the harsh effects of the condition.

Work Cited: 

Silva, Catarina. “Specific BDNF Mutation May Be Linked to Higher Risk of Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s, Study Suggests.” Parkinson’s News Today, 21 May 2019, https://parkinsonsnewstoday.com/2019/05/21/cognitive-impairment-parkinsons-linked-bdnf-mutation/.