New Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function (mice)

[anne_likes_red]

http://www.sciencealert.com/new-alzheimer-s-treatment-fully-restores-memory-function

Of the mice that received the treatment, 75 percent got their memories back.

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.

There's a link to the abstract of the study in article I liked to.
(If anyone's interested in a pdf of the full text, PM me.)

Anne.

 

[nandixon]

Very interesting. I wonder if this ultrasound technique to "gently open up the blood brain barrier" could be used as a BBB disruption method to achieve better CNS penetration for drugs that otherwise have a difficult time making it through the BBB. Like rituximab.

 

[adreno]

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 move in. Microglila cells are basically waste-removal cells, so once they get past the blood-brain barrier, they’re able to clear out the toxic beta-amyloid clumps before the blood-brain barrier is restored within a few hours.

Huh? The brain already has microglial cells.

 

[alex3619]

Huh? The brain already has microglial cells.

I think the point is the microglia have limitations on their function, and this technique is claimed to increase that function by allowing them more migratory capacity.

 

[adreno]

I think the point is the microglia have limitations on their function, and this technique is claimed to increase that function by allowing them more migratory capacity.

So ME/CFS patients could have the opposite problem, i.e., high microglial migration due to a leaky BBB?

 

[alex3619]

So ME/CFS patients could have the opposite problem, i.e., high microglial migration due to a leaky BBB?

Possibly. Hard to say. This might be the case if there is a persistent brain infection, probably non cytopathic.

 

[Aurator]

There's an article here about a new drug called aducanumab, which is claimed to be able to reverse the build-up of amyloid plaques. Having a close relative with fairly advanced Alzheimer's means I generally keep abreast of these sorts of news items.

 

[adreno]

I think the point is the microglia have limitations on their function, and this technique is claimed to increase that function by allowing them more migratory capacity.

Long-term stress as well as physiological aging result in similar immunological and hormonal disturbances including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis depletion, aberrant immune response (regulatory T-cells, Tregs, and T(h17)-lymphocyte accumulation) and decreased dehydroepiandrosterone synthesis both in the brain and in the adrenal glands. Since the main mechanisms of inflammation control, "prompt" (stress hormones) and "delayed" (Tregs), are broken, serum cytokine levels increase and become sufficient for blood-brain-barrier disruption. As a result peripheral cytokines penetrate into the brain where they begin to perform new functions. Structural and functional alterations of blood-brain-barrier as well as stress- (or age-) induced neuroinflammation promote influx of bone marrow derived dendritic cells and lymphocyte effectors into the brain parenchyma. Thereafter, mass intrusion of pro-inflammatory mediators and immune cells having a lot of specific targets alters the brain work that we can observe both in humans and in animal experiments.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25563002