It is difficult to diminish long-term traumatic memories with behavioural therapy, making it challenging to treat anxiety disorders. This study showed that administration of a histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) inhibitor to mice during a specific phase of traumatic memory recall — known as memory reconsolidation — rendered month-old memories susceptible to attenuation by behavioural therapy. The HDAC2 inhibitor epigenetically primed the expression of genes related to neuronal plasticity and increased the synaptic and structural plasticity of neurons. So, HDAC2 inhibitors could be used with behavioural therapy to eliminate long-term traumatic memories.
References
Gräff, J. et al. Epigenetic priming of memory updating during reconsolidation to attenuate remote fear memories. Cell 156, 261–276 (2014)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Harrison, C. Banishing bad memories. Nat Rev Drug Discov 13, 178 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4269
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4269