As of 2018, 5.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, the pervasive brain disorder that causes eventual deterioration of cognitive, physical and behavioral abilities. While Alzheimer's patients can be treated for symptoms or pain, the disease has no cure, and no current treatment can slow its progression.
Related: Can Alzheimers Be Spread? Mouse Study Hints Its Possible
Recently published research by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) neuroscientists, however, indicates that amyloid plaques could be reduced via brain wave stimulation. "By exposing mice to a unique combination of light and sound, MIT neuroscientists have shown that they can improve cognitive and memory impairments similar to those seen in Alzheimer’s patients," quotes MIT News.
Initial research on the benefits of LED light therapy in the treatment of Alzheimer's was reported in December of 2016, senior-authored by Li-Huei Tsai, the Picower Professor of Neuroscience, director of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. "Using LED lights flickering at a specific frequency, MIT researchers have shown that they can substantially reduce the beta-amyloid plaques seen in Alzheimer’s disease, in the visual cortex of mice. This treatment appears to work by inducing brain waves known as gamma oscillations, which the researchers discovered help the brain suppress beta-amyloid production and invigorate cells responsible for destroying the plaques."
As the effects of the light therapy were limited to the visual cortex in the earlier study, this time around, "the researchers set out to explore whether they could reach other brain regions, such as those needed for learning and memory, using sound stimuli. They found that exposure to one hour of 40-hertz tones per day, for seven days, dramatically reduced the amount of beta-amyloid in the auditory cortex (which processes sound) as well as the hippocampus, a key memory site that is located near the auditory cortex."
Tsai explained that "what we have demonstrated here is that we can use a totally different sensory modality to induce gamma oscillations in the brain. And secondly, this auditory-stimulation-induced gamma can reduce amyloid and Tau pathology in not just the sensory cortex but also in the hippocampus."
When combining both light and auditory stimulation, the researchers discovered an even greater effect. "The combined treatment led to fewer A-beta plaques across a big stretch of the brain, including the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, an area important for complex thinking. What’s more, the microglia seemed to swarm into a feeding frenzy." Tsai added that "Microglia pile up on each other, all congregated around the amyloid plaques."
A Biospace interview with Keith Fargo, Ph.D., Director of Scientific Programs & Outreach at the Alzheimer's Association, illuminated potential future effects of the study. "I think it’s a really interesting idea. I think that the most important thing for people to know is that it’s not ready for primetime yet. It’s preliminary. We wouldn’t want anyone to expose their families to flickering lights or buzzing noises. We don’t know if there’s going to be any benefit," he began.
"I think that [the study] also raises the question of how would you actually make it work in a human situation? It’s not outside of the realm of possibility that something like this could be beneficial. If you look at Parkinson’s, for example, implants have proven to be an effective treatment," he continued.
When discussing other current research being done on Alzheimer's treatments, Fargo explained that "the medications we have now for Alzheimer's are not disease-modifying; they treat symptoms. I like the analogy of cancer. If you have pain from a symptom of cancer, we can stop your pain, but we can’t do anythi...
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