Ultrasound Successfully Treats Alzheimer’s Disease In Mice
A study out of the University of Queensland in Australia has made a breakthrough in treating Alzheimer’s with Ultrasound in mice. Their research found high-energy waves actually helped remove abnormal clumps of proteins from the brains and improved their memory.
These mice had been genetically engineered to produce the plaques found in brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. For the mice who had been exposed to the ultrasound, there was a 50% reduction in plaques after five to seven weeks.
This is still early in the process of testing and while the mice appeared to be unharmed with no obvious tissue damage, human brains are more complex. It is unknown if ultrasound could work the same for human subjects.
In addition, there are two other components to Alzheimer’s, such as cell damage and loss of neural connectivity, which this approach did not address. Therefore, more animal studies are needed prior to human trials, but the research does offer another glimmer of hope in an ever increasing problem.
Here’s a Ted Talk discussing Alzheimer’s in more detail:
For the latest statistics on Alzheimer’s check out alz.org
Read more analysis of the study at the National Center of Biotechnology Information
