Copper nanoclusters based short-term memory ?eraser?

Short-term memory refers to processing information during short-term storage and manipulation which affected by a variety of factors. If there exists a biocompatible material that can effectively enter the brain, remove some short-term memories (such as car accident, murder, etc.), and be excreted from the body auto-matically, it will be expected to significantly reduce level of depression, anxiety and even the odds of suicide. Herein, we synthesize the bovine serum albumin (BSA)-templated copper nanoclusters (BSA-CuNCs) and BSA-templated silver nanoclusters (BSA-AgNCs) respectively then discuss their potential as short-term memory "erasers". In vivo experiments show that both CuNCs and AgNCs can effectively penetrate the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and decrease the recognition memory of mice by inhibiting neuronal cell conduction within 24 h. Inter-estingly, after 3 weeks, the discrimination index (DI) of the BSA-CuNCs-treated mice increases again and the memory can be recovered. In contrast, mice of the BSA-AgNCs group do not regain their memory. In addition, BSA-CuNCs exhibit good biocompatibility and can be metabolically cleared by the organism, which makes BSA-CuNCs intriguing potential for short-term memory erasure.