Blood-borne factors regulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis and cognition in mammals. We report that elevating circulating unacylated-ghrelin (UAG), using both pharmacological and genetic methods, reduced hippocampal neurogenesis and plasticity in mice. Spatial memory impairments observed in ghrelin-O-acyl transferase-null (GOAT) mice that lack acyl-ghrelin (AG) but have high levels of UAG were rescued by acyl-ghrelin. Acyl-ghrelin-mediated neurogenesis was dependent on non-cell-autonomous BDNF signaling that was inhibited by UAG. These findings suggest that post-translational of ghrelin is important to neurogenesis and memory in mice. To determine relevance in humans, we analyzed circulating AG:UAG in Parkinson disease (PD) patients diagnosed with dementia (PDD), cognitively intact PD patients, and controls. Notably, plasma AG:UAG was only reduced in PDD. Hippocampal ghrelin-receptor expression remained unchanged; however, GOAT cell number was reduced in PDD. We identify UAG as a regulator of hippocampal-dependent plasticity and spatial memory and AG:UAG as a putative circulating diagnostic biomarker of dementia.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7575905PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2020.100120DOI Listing

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