Groundbreaking Alzheimer’s treatment restores memory function in mice using ultrasound

With our current technology, Alzheimer’s disease remains an incurable death march that begins around the age of 65 and slowly worsens over time, causing the sufferer to lose memory and bodily function, before eventually dying. But this may finally change; researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia, have discovered a new none-invasive method of dissolving the toxic plaques that attach themselves to neural pathways, causing the condition progressively worsen.

Published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the research proposes using high-frequency sound waves generated by ultrasonic equipment to remove the Amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide responsible for the development and advancement of the plaque accumulation.

Professor Jürgen Götz, founding director and researcher at the University of Queensland's Brain Institute, claims that his team has managed to successfully restore memory function in mice by blasting them multiple times with ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier and activate the micrological cells that act as the “immune system” of the nervous system. These cells then begin consuming the Aβ completely un-reliant of any additional outside chemical agent.  The results of the mouse experiment were then verified using spinning disk confocal microscopy and high-resolution three-dimensional reconstruction to verify that the plaques were indeed consumed.

“The word 'breakthrough' is often mis-used, but in this case I think this really does fundamentally change our understanding of how to treat this disease, and I foresee a great future for this approach.” 

While human trials are expected to be at least two years away, the team hopes to upscale the ultrasound machine to use on the brains of sheep in the meantime. Could this technique prove bountiful, it may positively impact the lives of the 35 million of people currently living with Alzhemier’s disease, a figure that’s expected to double by 2030 and triple to 115 million by 2050. 

“We’re also working on seeing whether this method clears toxic protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases other than Alzheimer’s and whether this also restores executive functions, including decision-making and motor control,” said Jürgen Götz.

Source: Gizmag via Science Translation Medicine