Ultrasound and microbubbles can safely open the blood-brain barrier in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, researchers reported yesterday (July 25) in Nature Communications and at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago. The noninvasive technique could aid in getting therapies for the neurodegenerative disease straight to the brain.
“This is a critical first step,” study coauthor Nir Lipsman, director of the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, says in a statement. “By successfully, safely and reversibly opening the blood-brain barrier in patients with early to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, we can support the continued investigation of focused ultrasound as a potential novel treatment, and further study the delivery of therapies that otherwise cannot access the brain.”
In the study, Lipsman and his colleagues injected microbubbles into the blood of three men and two women with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease and then directed focused, low-frequency ultrasound waves toward amyloid-rich areas in ...
