By boosting the activity of cellular ‘power stations’ in the brains of mice with a dementia-like condition, an international team of researchers has reversed pathological memory loss.

Problems with energy-producing cellular structures called mitochondria have previously been linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Before now, it wasn’t clear if this was a cause or a consequence of these conditions.

“This work is the first to establish a cause-and-effect link between mitochondrial dysfunction and symptoms related to neurodegenerative diseases, suggesting that impaired mitochondrial activity could be at the origin of the onset of neuronal degeneration,” says Giovanni Marsicano, a neuroscientist from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM).