Ultrasound boosts success of Alzheimer’s drugs

QBI researchers are a step closer to non-invasive treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, with the discovery that ultrasound enhances the effectiveness of immunotherapy in blasting away the plaque build-ups that are a hallmark of the disease.

The research could make expensive treatments of Alzheimer’s much more cost-effective.

“The discovery is another promising step made by QBI researchers towards future therapeutic treatments for dementia,” said QBI Director, Professor Pankaj Sah.

“Excitingly, the research shows that ultrasound may also be a viable treatment for other disorders in which proteins aggregate in the brain – including Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease.”

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and affects more than 290,000 Australians. It is characterised by a build-up of proteins called beta-amyloid and tau, which are thought to destroy brain cells and cause symptoms such as memory loss and confusion.

Director of QBI’s Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research (CJCADR) Professor Jürgen Götz and colleagues previously established that scanning ultrasound reversed Alzheimer’s symptoms and restored memory in mice.

The new research showed that ultrasound alone cleared toxic tau protein clumps, but combining ultrasound with an antibody treatment was more effective than either treatment alone in removing protein clumps and reducing Alzheimer’s symptoms in mice.

Read more: https://qbi.uq.edu.au/article/2017/04...


Queensland Brain Institute | http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au
Facebook | https://fb.me/qldbraininstitute
Twitter |   / qldbraininst  
Instagram |   / qldbraininstitute  
SoundCloud |   / qldbraininstitute  
LinkedIn |   / queensland-brain-institute