Image Source: Sierra Blakely

A Wisconsin based biotechnology company claims that one of their clinical studies has shown that a protein extracted from a unique species of bioluminescent jellyfish helps improve the memories of Alzheimers patients.

Using a randomized controlled trial, Quincy Bioscience reports interim results indicating that participants who took an experimental drug with the jellyfish protein tested 14% higher on cognitive tests than those who received a placebo.

While these results are preliminary and might not hold after complete scientific scrutiny, Quincy Bioscience has already played a role in the production of Prevagen, a dietary supplement that they claim “helps improve memory by supplementing protective proteins the body loses in the aging process.”

The jellyfish species that has provided the protein is Aequorea Victoria. It is sometimes referred to as a “crystal jelly” and lives in the Pacific Ocean, but has close relatives in the Atlantic. The protein from the jellyfish that is being used is called aequorin.

Quincy Bioscience has applied for a patent to exclusively use aequorin, which they claim helps cells by binding to calcium. As people age, a calcium imbalance is thought to contribute to a loss of brain cells as well as illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease. Thus, the experimental drug the company is testing theoretically helps reduce this potential by reducing excessive calcium in the brain.

While we probably will not know for some time if aequorin can truly help Alzheimier’s patients and improve memory, those who are skeptical should gain some confidence in knowing that Aequorea victoria has already provided us with one huge medical breakthrough.

In 1961, Japanese biologist Osamo Shimomura and a colleague first isolated what is now referred to as GFP (green florescent protein). It comes from Aequorea Victoria along with aequorin. By the 1990s, scientists had figured out how to engineer variations of GFP so that it could have medical applications. It basically allows scientists to better view the processes happening inside living cells and genes thanks to the green light the protein provides.

In 2008, Shimomura and several colleagues received a Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work. Wired magazine has even made this impressive assessment of GFP: “Nearly every paper now written on gene or cell function involves GFP, either directly or by building on GFP-lit research. Its harnessing is considered one of the great advances of modern science, arguably on par with the development of the microscope — another tool that allowed researchers to investigate a previously invisible world.”

So the next time you see a jellyfish in the ocean and think it’s a rather annoying kind of animal, think again. It is just another example of the wonder, mystery, and value our oceans hold.

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