New Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function

[GenePoole0304]

Of the mice that received the treatment, 75 percent got their memory function back.
BEC CREW
18 MAR 2015
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Australian researchers have come up with a non-invasive ultrasound technology that clears the brain of neurotoxic amyloid plaques - structures that are responsible for memory loss and a decline in cognitive function in Alzheimer’s patients.

If a person has Alzheimer’s disease, it’s usually the result of a build-up of two types of lesions - amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques sit between the neurons and end up as dense clusters of beta-amyloid molecules, a sticky type of protein that clumps together and forms plaques.

Neurofibrillary tangles are found inside the neurons of the brain, and they’re caused by defective tau proteins that clump up into a thick, insoluble mass. This causes tiny filaments called microtubules to get all twisted, which disrupts the transportation of essential materials such as nutrients and organelles along them, just like when you twist up the vacuum cleaner tube.

As we don’t have any kind of vaccine or preventative measure for Alzheimer’s - a disease that affects 343,000 people in Australia, and 50 million worldwide - it’s been a race to figure out how best to treat it, starting with how to clear the build-up of defective beta-amyloid and tau proteins from a patient’s brain. Now a team from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland have come up with a pretty promising solution for removing the former.

Publishing in Science Translational Medicine, the team describes the technique as using a particular type of ultrasound called a focused therapeutic ultrasound, which non-invasively beams sound waves into the brain tissue. By oscillating super-fast, these sound waves are able to gently open up the blood-brain barrier, which is a layer that protects the brain against bacteria, and stimulate the brain’s microglial cells to activate. Microglila cells are basically waste-removal cells, so they’re able to clear out the toxic beta-amyloid clumps that are responsible for the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

The team reports fully restoring the memory function of 75 percent of the mice they tested it on, with zero damage to the surrounding brain tissue. They found that the treated mice displayed improved performance in three memory tasks - a maze, a test to get them to recognise new objects, and one to get them to remember the places they should avoid.

"We’re extremely excited by this innovation of treating Alzheimer’s without using drug therapeutics," one of the team, Jürgen Götz, said in a press release. "The word ‘breakthrough’ is often misused, 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."

The team says they’re planning on starting trials with higher animal models, such as sheep, and hope to get their human trials underway in 2017.

You can hear an ABC radio interview with the team here.

http://www.sciencealert.com/new-alzheim ... y-function

[pgf54]

I was talking to my mothers AD specialist last Thursday here in Australia about this treatment, and he believes it is some time away if it is possible.
He indicated its easier with mice and their small brains and thin skull bones, whereas we have thicker skulls etc, and he doesnt believe we have the technology or equipment at this stage to achieve the same effects on humans.......??

[Doctor Lost]

The team reports fully restoring the memory function of 75 percent of the mice they tested it on, with zero damage to the surrounding brain tissue. They found that the treated mice displayed improved performance in three memory tasks - a maze, a test to get them to recognise new objects, and one to get them to remember the places they should avoid


That's pretty amazing. It sounds like its fixing mapping memory. I wonder how long it lasts and what the difference is in the 25% that are unaffected.

[Doctor Lost]

a related study suggests that the sonication opens the blood brain barrier for about 4 hours.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2518085/

[BrianR]

The Australian Department of Health announced $10 million in funding for a clinical study aimed at opening "the blood-brain barrier enabling the clearance of toxic protein plaques from the brain": https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2018 ... -treatment

The research group (Queensland Brain Institute) states

A phase I clinical safety trial involving a small number of patients, which is planned for commencement late in 2019, will explore whether the technique discovered at UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) in 2015 is safe to use in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

Although it sounds as if they're still trying to obtain commitments for all the funding.

[Fiver]

It's an attractive idea, isn't it?

Fingers crossed.

Until the trials are done maybe I can simulate the treatment if I press my sonicare toothbrush against he top of my mouth. It wouldn't be the oddest thing I've done.

[NF52]

Hmmm. Invites some speculation Fiver!!

I think the implication of the article is misleading, since they point out near the end that this simply removes amyloid and shows improvement in function in mice who had not shown full-blown AD.

It would be a different delivery system than BACE-1, which also prevents amyloid plaques, and maybe without side effects. But the average drug trial takes about 9 years from mouse study to clinical results—if it proves safe and effective at every step!
But hats off to the Aussies for a novel idea!

[mike]

I wonder what they are letting in, while they are letting the amyloid out...? Didn't the Russians just try this against our embassy in Cuba?