Ultrasound can remove plaque in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

  According to a new study, scanning ultrasound can help clear plaque and restore memory in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. The mechanism is to stimulate microglia to swallow the disease-causing plaques, and microglia are fighters in the brain's immune system. This non-invasive technique deviates from the traditional drug-based method. It is still in the early stages of testing, but it may one day be effective against this neurodegenerative disease and other abnormal protein accumulation in the brain. The disease provides some possible treatment strategy. Brain damage in Alzheimer's disease often originates from plaques, which are abnormal deposits of protein fragments called beta-amyloid. The treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and many other brain diseases has been elusive, partly because of the blood-brain barrier; the blood-brain barrier is a protective and tightly connected layer of cells that prevents blood flow Most of the circulating drugs in the drug enter the brain. Gerhard Leinenga and Jürgen Götz explored whether they can use scanning ultrasound to penetrate the brains of mice and ablate β-amyloid plaques; scanning ultrasound is a type of image that emits sound waves into tissues to capture internal organs and fetuses. Elephant device. Focused ultrasound that sends high-energy sound waves can be combined with the injected microbubbles; the microbubbles will vibrate in response to the ultrasound to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier. The method of using focused ultrasound and microbubbles to penetrate the human brain has so far been tested in monkeys. Leinenga and Götz repeatedly applied this technique to the brains of mice with beta-amyloid plaques over the course of several weeks. They found that ultrasound almost completely removed plaque in 75% of mice without damaging brain tissue. Compared with untreated mice, the treated mice showed improvement in memory, and they performed better in the three memory tests; these three memory tests are Y-maze, new object recognition test And the place actively avoids activities. Brain tissue analysis showed that ultrasound stimulated microglia (i.e. immune cells that phagocytic cell debris) to take up more β-amyloid plaques. The authors of this study plan to test focused ultrasound and microbubble technology in a sheep model of Alzheimer's disease.