
Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function (2015) - namank
http://www.sciencealert.com/new-alzheimer-s-treatment-fully-restores-memory-function
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superbaconman
Looks like they're trying on sheep earlier this year.

[http://www.biotechniques.com/news/Breaking-Boundaries-
Ultras...](http://www.biotechniques.com/news/Breaking-Boundaries-Ultrasound-
Treatments-for-Alzheimers-Disease/biotechniques-363211.html#.WB4iqdUrKVM)

> Leinenga is also trying to apply the technique to sheep since their skulls
> are similar in thickness to human skulls. The larger sheep brain is also
> closer in size and shape to human brains as well. Having a similar model is
> important for developing ultrasound technology, because the physics can
> differ in a mouse versus a human due to the difficulty of transmitting
> through a thicker human skull.

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jlsync
Research appears to be ongoing

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2016/11/03/on-path-to-
alz...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2016/11/03/on-path-to-alzheimers-
cure-australian-team-analyzes-petabytes-of-data)

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kamac
Apparently they still haven't been able to translate the treatment to work on
humans.

Also, it hasn't yet been proven that the treatment itself is completely safe
for the brain.

~~~
ambrop7
And it doesn't have to be - the side effects are to be weighted against the
benefits.

~~~
nom
Exactly. Once your brain stops working you've got nothing to lose and many
people would rather take a 10% chance of living over a 100% chance of dying.
It's the same with cancer, you try everything there is and even extreme side
effects can be tolerated.

~~~
grandwigg
I wouldn't go that far. I know a number of people (myself included) for whom
there is a threshold for sideeffect vs longevity. As a chronic pain patient,
even now that's are treatments possible, but I would be unable to keep my job,
or even enjoy much I currently do. How valuable is life when you can't take
part in it?

~~~
justin66
I imagine you don't have to be too far along into Alzheimer's to decide the
side effects are worth it.

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nom
Seems too good to be true. Can someone put this into perspective? Is it
promising?

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dewarrn1
Briefly, the authors repeatedly, transiently opened the blood-brain barrier
(BBB) of an animal model of AD using scanning ultrasound. They observed that
AD-like behavioral and brain symptomology was reduced in the treated animals.
They suggest that the effects may be related to potentiating bloodflow to the
brain and thereby enhancing clean-up of AD-related pathology.

The challenges going forward are described in their limitations section:

"At this stage, several hurdles have to be faced for SUS to be considered for
application in human patients. In addition to the limitation presented by the
animal model used in our study, it needs to be considered that the human brain
is much larger than that of a mouse. Also, the thicker human skull presents an
obstacle that needs to be factored in when parameters are defined that have
the envisaged biological effect in the absence of tissue damage. There may
also be the necessity to use one of several cranial windows to access the
human brain. Also, if one were to apply SUS in humans at the prodromal stage
before overt symptoms of AD were present, the safety of this approach would
need to be monitored in real time. This could be facilitated by the recent
development of advanced methods, such as passive cavitation detection, which
is currently being evaluated in both rodents and primates (29). To avoid
potentially excessive immune activation in a clinical setting (30), the
ultrasound treatment regimen could possibly be done stepwise, covering one
brain area at a time.Whereas we only coupled ultrasound with microbubbles,
previous studies in rodents evaluated ultrasound for the delivery of
therapeutic agents, such as antibodies (31, 32), viral vectors (33), and
dextran of different sizes (9, 10). One study targeted Ab using a few entry
points for delivery and only a single treatment (34). Because the effect on Ab
plaques was very modest, the authors of this study suggested that focused
ultrasound would best be suited as a delivery tool, for example, to boost the
uptake of peripherally administered anti-Ab antibodies (34). Our results,
however, demonstrated that repeated SUS treatment of the entire mouse brain
was sufficient to markedly ameliorate the pathology of Ab-depositing mice as
analyzed histologically, biochemically, and behaviorally.Our study highlights
the potential of SUS treatment as a therapeutic approach for AD and possibly
other diseases involving protein aggregation. However, this does not rule out
the possibility that it could also be used as a vehicle for drug or gene
delivery, given that the BBB remains themajor obstacle for the uptake by brain
tissue of therapeutic agents from the circulation (9)."

In summary, it's an interesting approach, but I'm not holding my breath.

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ianai
I saw Alzheimer's take my grandma. That has to be worse than cancer, but not
by much.

~~~
vidarh
Both my grandmothers. It's brutal - from what we can tell in retrospect both
of them were probably very aware of it, possibly for 2-3 years, but terrified
of admitting to it.

One had a breakdown when her husband was going into hospital for a minor
operation and she was terrified she wouldn't be able to take care of herself.
The other had to be tricked to come in for an evaluation because she was
scared of being left at the hospital.

Both lived for years after they stopped recognising anyone or reacting to
stimuli, and the worst part to me was that both my grandfathers ended up
spending years putting their own last years on hold to care for someone who no
longer showed any signs of remembering who they were.

For all intents and purposes they were gone, but because they were still
physically alive, it locked people in this waiting pattern. One of my
grandfathers pretty much spent all his waking hours sitting next to his wife
in a nursing home from he turned 80 until ca. 90. When she finally died, he
was able to do other things again, but then died two years later of heart
failure (he'd had heart problems since his 50s)

~~~
dromtrund
My grandmother had it too. In my aunt's words, after she passed: "It's like
losing my mother twice - first the person dies, then the body"

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dghughes
When I see stuff like this I have to say I am amazed at how precise some drugs
are.

Somewhat related I was watching a video about protein motors and how they
work. They are small structures that walk on microtubules (as mentioned in the
Alzheimer's article) inside cells. There are many types but some walk using
hinged protein feet.

The narrator explained how his team invented a drug that helped to make one
step in that process better. They made the hinge part of the foot work
normally giving it more strength. It was a single phosphate molecule added to
this step.

It was incredible to think one small part of a protein motor the "ankle" part
of the foot of that one protein motor on a microtubule inside a single cell
had some help.

I explained it horribly here is the video
[https://youtu.be/9RUHJhskW00?t=1946](https://youtu.be/9RUHJhskW00?t=1946)

edit: phosphate not sulphur

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nolite
..in mice...

~~~
danielmorozoff
Have to start somewhere. This is a big deal for a number of reasons. This
provides a non-invasive treatment avenue for a very common (35M worldwide and
expected to double in 20 years) CNS affliction and shows incredible curative
properties in animal models.

This is real science.

~~~
nolite
It is a huge deal... agreed.. And I'm a real scientist. just saying, let's not
get carried away with the journalistic headlines.

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danielmorozoff
One of the more intriguing things in this work is that they used a physical
process. This makes it much more likely to work across in other
animals/humans.

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Jaruzel
Can someone put 2015 on the title please?

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inimino
And "in mice"?

