Could Ultrasound be the Elusive Cure to Alzheimer's Disease?

Ultrasound may be the elusive cure to Alzheimer's disease as it was shown to reverse the condition in mice studies.

According to New York Daily News, researchers induced disease in mice by depositing amyloid-beta plaques. Plaque build up in human brain is associated with the disease. When they treated the mice with rapidly oscillating ultrasound waves, researchers found that the microglial cells in brain had removed the plaques. The test mice performed like healthy mice in tests. The discovery was seen as a breakthrough as it is non-invasive and promises permanent treatment if it can be replicated in humans.

"With an ageing population placing an increasing burden on the health system, an important factor is cost, and other potential drug treatments using antibodies will be expensive. In contrast, this method uses relatively inexpensive ultrasound and microbubble technology which is non-invasive and appears highly effective," said Professor Jürgen Götz, at Queensland University's Queensland Brain Institute's Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research, in a news release.

The team also found that the blood-brain barrier opened up for a while to clear plaque with compromising its protective role, reports CNET. The treated mice performed like healthy mice in recognizing novel objects and when navigating through a maze, showing improvements in cognition.

Researchers now want to see if ultrasound can help in other neurodegenerative conditions.

"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," Götz said.