Jeff Roberts – A team of Australian researchers are using a non-invasive ultrasound technology to assist in removing toxic plaque and lesions from nerve cells commonly associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
If you are one of the many millions of people who have witnessed the degenerative effects of Alzheimer’s disease, then you likely know how heartbreaking it is to see a loved one’s quality of life dissipate in what seems like an instant.
For years, scientists have worked diligently to find a counteractive treatment for the common neuro-degenerative disease, but mostly with no successful avail. Thankfully, however, this might all be about to change.
A team of researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland have found success in reversing the processes that are commonly associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases. Their findings were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
From what we currently understand, a person’s Alzheimer’s disease is 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, sort of like when you twist up the vacuum cleaner tube.
The team’s technique uses 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 most severe symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Remarkably, the team reports a 75% success rate in fully restoring memory function for the rats they tested the treatment on. Even better is the fact that there was no brain damage to surrounding tissues.
They found that the treated mice displayed improved performance in three memory tasks – a maze, a test to get them to recognize 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.
This type of success rate could spell big things for Alzheimer’s treatment. What implications would this have for people suffering from the disease? Could this potentially lead to increased life spans and extended brain capacity and function for the elderly population? These questions and more will continue to be explored with further research, stay tuned for more updates as they come.
What are your thoughts on this news? Share with us in the comment section below!
Source
- http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/7/278/278ra33
- http://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2015/03/14-2.htm#.VTWP6Dt4qd3
- Science Alert
Jeff Roberts is a Writer/Blogger/Horror-Fannatic – “Joining the CE team in 2013 was a literal dream-come-true for me, providing me the opportunity to do what I love, which is writing. Nothing is more cathartic and fulfilling, and I hope that my writing inspires you to see the world through a new lens. Journalistically, my interests are wide, including technological innovation and sustainability, health and fitness, plant medicine and more, but my true passion is simply telling people’s story. If I can help translate and narrate someone else’s life story and do it the justice it deserves, then I am complete. On a lighter note, I dream of one day being an accomplished screenwriter and novelist. I love all things scary, as well as my two cats. Three words to describe myself? Honest, compassionate, jokester. If you have a question or want to chat, hit me up at jeff@collective-evolution.com, or follow me on Twitter and Facebook! “You are responsible for your own happiness, so why live a life you don’t love?”
SF Source Collective Evolution April 2015
I am against experimentation on animals.
I feel what they are doing is wrong.
They got $9 million= they had to give results.
I am not a big fan of this type of ” we found cure for alzheimers” scientific media hype and not yet reviewed research findings. With the state of the corruption of research and science I am skeptical. I have found a lot of researchers lie in papers for funding and building or maintaining their reputation.
What they say they did was break up plaques and tangles in 75% of the rats using ultrasound .( P&T the only correct way to correctly diagnose Alzheimer’s ) often dementia patients have been then diagnosed with A after dosed up with ineffective drugs given fo dementia (& drugs for reducing cholesterol ) drugs that damage cognitive function further). We do not know if the P&T came back in these rats brains or what happened overtime after did brain cancer start developing, was their immune system compromised from the artifical manipulation of their blood brain barrier.
If they do not know the cause of memory loss or understand how memory actually works( there is only a “theory of memory “which has been disproved) how successful are they going to be in working with memory loss (which is dementia and A( the P&T ) block cell communication and wave function.
Namaste.