New Alzheimer’s Treatment Fully Restores Memory Function

An Australian team of researchers have come up with a non-invasive ultrasound technology that clears the brain of neurotoxic lesions. Two of the most common being Amyloid Plaques and Neurofibrillary Tangles. Amyloid Plaques sit between the neurons and end up clumping together to create a very sticky type of protein called Beta-Amyloid Molecules. Neurofibrillary Tangles are similar to Amyloid Plaques, but instead of clumping together between neurons; they clog and create twists in microtubes. Similar to fat clogging up our blood vessels.

Due to there being no vaccine or preventative measure for Alzheimer’s, affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide; this new process sounds like it’s a great leap in the right direction. Current testing shows at least 75% of test subjects (mice) regained full cognitive function with zero damage to the brain tissue. The testing process included a maze, recognising new objects and recognising avoidable places; Pinky and the Brain comes to mind here.

“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.”

This process sounds like a deep clean of your mouth, maybe this could become a wide range, preventative treatment; sort of like brushing your teeth to remove tooth plaque. The team behind this experiment a pushing planning through to start trials on higher animal models, such as sheep and hope to move to human trials in 2017.

Thanks to ScienceAlert for this information