UCSF

Cognitive deficits are a major biomedical challenge-and engagement of the brain in stimulating tasks improves cognition in aged individuals (Wilson et al., 2002; Gates et al., 2011) and rodents (Aidil-Carvalho et al., 2017), through unknown mechanisms. Whether cognitive stimulation alters specific metabolic pathways in the brain is unknown. Understanding which metabolic processes are involved in cognitive stimulation is important because it could lead to pharmacologic intervention that promotes biological effects of a beneficial behavior, toward the goal of effective medical treatments for cognitive deficits. Here we show using male mice that cognitive stimulation induced metabolic remodeling of the mouse hippocampus, and that pharmacologic treatment with the longevity hormone α-klotho (KL), mediated by its KL1 domain, partially mimicked this alteration. The shared, metabolic signature shared between cognitive stimulation and treatment with KL or KL1 closely correlated with individual mouse cognitive performance, indicating a link between metabolite levels and learning and memory. Importantly, the treatment of mice with KL1, an endogenous circulating factor that more closely mimicked cognitive stimulation than KL, acutely increased synaptic plasticity, a substrate of cognition. KL1 also improved cognition, itself, in young mice and countered deficits in old mice. Our data show that treatments or interventions mimicking the hippocampal metabolome of cognitive stimulation can enhance brain functions. Further, we identify the specific domain by which klotho promotes brain functions, through KL1, a metabolic mimic of cognitive stimulation.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Cognitive deficits are a major biomedical challenge without truly effective pharmacologic treatments. Engaging the brain through cognitive tasks benefits cognition. Mimicking the effects of such beneficial behaviors through pharmacological treatment represents a highly valuable medical approach to treating cognitive deficits. We demonstrate that brain engagement through cognitive stimulation induces metabolic remodeling of the hippocampus that was acutely recapitulated by the longevity factor klotho, mediated by its KL1 domain. Treatment with KL1, a close mimic of cognitive stimulation, enhanced cognition and countered cognitive aging. Our findings shed light on how cognition metabolically alters the brain and provide a plausible therapeutic intervention for mimicking these alterations that, in turn, improves cognition in the young and aging brain.