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BASEL, Switzerland, April 26 (Reuters) - Scientists trying to understand how organisms learn have identified a key molecule that improves memory in worms, Roche Holding AG said on Thursday.

The Swiss drugs firm said the discovery could lead to treatment of cognitive illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, depression or schizophrenia.

Roche scientists studying Caenorhabditis elegans, a common roundworm, found the worms learned better to find food in areas with a specific temperature if they were genetically manipulated to overproduce a calcium-sensing molecule called NCS-1.

They saw that worms with excess NCS-1 "learn faster, have a better performance level and a long memory, thus they are 'smarter'," Roche said in a statement outlining findings published in the April issue of Neuron magazine.

The discovery opens a new target for drugs that address cognitive disorders.

Cognition is the sum of thinking skills that include perception, awareness, reasoning, intellect, judgement, imagination and memory.

"Those skills are significantly diminished with ageing and are severely impaired in Alzheimer's, schizophrenic or depressed patients," the Swiss drugs and diagnostics group said.

"Thus understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in learning and memory could allow scientists to develop medicines that improve cognition, an important medical need."

C. elegans, whose 19,000 genes were completed mapped in 1998, has around half the number that humans have. The worm seems to be an attractive model for identifying and validating potential drug targets and pathways, Roche said.

10:32 04-26-01

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