Canberra, Australia (CU)_ According to Queensland Brain Institute experts, ultrasound can help solve some of the negative consequences of aging and dementia without having to penetrate the blood-brain barrier. Professor Jürgen Götz of QBI’s Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research headed a multidisciplinary team that demonstrated that low-intensity ultrasound efficiently restored cognition in mice models without breaching the barrier.
These discoveries open up a new path for noninvasive technologies and will aid clinicians in finding medical therapies that take into account a patient’s illness progression and cognitive deterioration. Professor Götz said, “Historically, we have been using ultrasound together with small gas-filled bubbles to open the almost-impenetrable blood-brain barrier and get therapeutics from the bloodstream into the brain”.
The new study employed a designated control group that received ultrasonography without the barrier-opening microbubbles. He said, “The entire research team was surprised by the remarkable restoration in cognition. We conclude therapeutic ultrasound is a non-invasive way to enhance cognition in the elderly.”
According to Dr. Daniel Blackmore, a senior postdoctoral researcher on the team, the current study aims to employ ultrasound to restore LTP and enhance spatial learning in older mice. Long-term potentiation (LTP) is described as the reduction in learning-induced plasticity of signaling between neurons that occurs as people get older.
According to Professor Götz, the brain is not particularly accessible; however, ultrasound helped to overcome obstacles such as the blood-brain barrier. He said, “Using ultrasound could enhance cognition independently of clearing amyloid and tau, which form plaques and tangles in people with Alzheimer’s disease. Microbubbles will continue to be used in combination with ultrasound in ongoing Alzheimer’s research.”
Dementia affects about 400,000 individuals in Australia, with the number expected to rise to one million by 2050, due to ageing, which is the major risk factor. Previous study has demonstrated that ultrasonic technology is safe in the long run and that utilizing it to treat Alzheimer’s disease can reduce pathological alterations and cognitive deficiencies.
Professor Götz stated that the difference between normal physiological ageing and the pathological ageing seen in Alzheimer’s disease still remains unclear. He explained, ”We believe there may be some overlap between physiological and pathological ageing in the brain and the potential for this to be corrected with ultrasound is meaningful for those living with Alzheimer’s disease. We are taking these findings and implementing them in our Alzheimer’s research as we go forward to clinical trials.” Professor Götz’s research group is trying to figure out how brain disorders start and advance at the molecular and cellular levels in order to find new treatments.
