“With
an ageing population placing an increasing burden on the health system, an
important factor is cost, and other potential drug treatments using antibodies
will be expensive. In contrast, this method uses relatively inexpensive ultrasound
and microbubble technology which is non-invasive and appears highly effective.
The approach is able to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier, activating
mechanisms that clear toxic protein clumps and restoring memory functions. With
our approach the blood-brain barrier's opening is only temporary for a few
hours, so it quickly restores its protective role”
CJCADR Director
Professor Jürgen Götz commenting on the discovery of the use of Ultrasound to
treat Alzheimer's Disease
I
knew that Ultrasound can be used to scan the human body and even transmit power
across a room to charge a Laptop as explained in my blog article
entitled “Meredith
Perry's Ubeam Ultrasonic Power Transfer and the Venture Capitalists - Ubeam's
Wireless Charging Future is a Good Vibration with a Magnetic Personality”.
But
I had no idea that microbubbles and Ultrasound could possibly be used to
restore memory in humans as explained in the article “Non-invasive
ultrasound restores memory in Alzheimer's mice”, published March 11, 2015
by Michelle Starr, CNET News.
This
incredible breakthrough was made by a team of researchers at the University of
Queensland's CJCADR (Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research) Brain
Institute comprising of lead author Dr. Gerhard Leinenga and CJCADR Director
Professor Jürgen Götz as stated in the article “Ultrasound
Used to Attack Alzheimer's-Linked Brain Plaque in Mice”, published
Wednesday, March 11, 2015, U.S. National
Library of Medicine.
And
as expected, the team is excited by the implications of their research to quote
CJCADR Director Professor Jürgen Götz in a Press Release: “We're extremely
excited by this innovation of treating Alzheimer's without using drug
therapeutics. The word 'breakthrough' is often mis-used, but in this case I
think this really does fundamentally change our understanding of how to treat
this disease, and I foresee a great future for this approach”.
Their
research, which was published in online Journal Science
Translational Medicine in study entitled Scanning ultrasound
removes amyloid-β and restores memory in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model,
points to an alternative method to drugs that can break down the neurotoxic
amyloid plaques that cause memory loss and loss of cognitive function in Alzheimer's
disease patients.
So
what exactly is Alzheimer's
disease? And how does Ultrasound work to restore memory and cognitive
function?
Alzheimer’s disease -
Neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques and the link to excess Sugar in the Diet
Alzheimer's
disease is a form of dementia where the patient experiences symptom ranging
from severe memory loss to loss of cognitive functions.
Researchers
still haven't figured out yet what causes Alzheimer's
disease. But what is now known is that the disease manifests as a buildup of
neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques and neurofibrillary tangles as explained in the
article “New
Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function”, published 18 MAR
2015 by BEC CREW, Science Alert in
the brain.
Some
researchers have linked buildup of neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques in the brain to
the increasing levels of consumption of sugar in the human diet, as shown in
the video below.
The
theory is that somehow, whatever causes Alzheimer's
disease causes the body to produce and create a buildup of these neurotoxic
amyloid-β plaques in the brain, blocking the neurons from communicating
efficiently with each other. The result is an inability for human to access the
part of their brain where memory and cognitive functions occur, resulting in
the patient manifesting symptoms typical of Alzheimer's disease.
So
how does ultrasound remove plaque? By giving some microbubbles some positive
Vibrations!
How Ultrasound removes
neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques - Positive Vibration with a Magnetic Connection
The
idea behind using ultrasound is very similar to Dr. Peter Thiel's MagForce’s
NanoTherm magnetic fields and
Nanoparticles of Iron Oxide to kill tumours as reported in my blog article
entitled “MagForce’s
NanoTherm Cancer Cure – How Iron Oxide in your Energy Drink can Kill Cervical
and Prostate Cancer via Magnetic Induction”.
However,
instead of heating up nanoparticles of a metal injected into the tumour to burn
it up, the idea is that high frequency ultrasound can vibrate microbubbles of
air injected into the brain close to the blood-brain barrier, which protect the
brain from bacterial infection and germs.
Dr.
Gerhard Leinenga theory as to why ultrasound works as explained more thoroughly
in the article “Ultrasound
therapies target brain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease”, published 11 March
2015 by Emily Underwood, Science Magazine
is a lot like bursting soap bubbles as ,
quote: “In our treatment, ultrasound acts on the microbubbles, causing them to
expand and contract in the blood vessels of the brain”.
This
temporarily opens up the gateway into the brain via the blood-brain barrier,
the brain’s protective shield from germs. Bacteria and other germs then enter
the brain to attack. But this also awakens the microglial cells in the brain
that naturally feed on and remove neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques. Awakened from
their slumber, they then attack the bacteria and other germs as the main course
and then add a serving of neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques for dessert.
Ultrasound Microbubbles
fly the Blood-Brain Barrier Gate - Reverses Alzheimer's disease in Mice model
Like
the research done on the effect of a Sugar diet on Mice and a possible link to
Alzheimer's Disease, the team of researchers at the University of Queensland's
CJCADR got three (3) sets of lab rats, with one used as the Test Group, one as
the Control Group of Mice and a third as the Normal Group of Mice.
They
then deposited neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques into the brains of the mice, one
set for Test and one for Control, while leaving a third Normal group of Mice
free of the neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques. Then the Test mice were treated with
repeated scanning ultrasounds, the same as used in medical Ultrasound scanning
equipment, but in a zigzag pattern across each animal's entire skull.
This
differs from the procedure established by earlier in December 2014 by biophysicist
Kullervo Hynynen of the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto and
neuroscientist Isabelle Aubert, his partner in crime as explained in the
article “Ultrasound
therapies target brain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease”, published 11 March
2015 by Emily Underwood, Science Magazine.
The
high frequency pulsations apparently either dislodge the deposits of neurotoxic
amyloid-β plaques or it activates the microglial cells in the brain that
naturally feed on and remove neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques.
What
happened next astonished the Researchers.
Ultrasound and
Microbubbles - Potential Treatment for Brain Cancers
The
Researcher then examined the brains of these Test Mice using spinning disc
confocal microscopy and 3D reconstruction. To their surprise, the activated
microglial cells had removed most of deposited neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques in
75% of the mice.
Subsequent
testing done with the Test Mice showed that they displayed improved cognition
and memory on the same level as the Normal Mice free of the neurotoxic
amyloid-β plaques. They also showed better cognition and memory than the
Control Mice that had the deposited neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques in three (3)
memory test:
1.
The Y-maze test
2.
The novel object recognition test
3.
The active place avoidance test
Good
to note that this is research done on Mice; humans may react differently to
ultrasound, as we have a thicker skull that blocks conventional ultrasound. But
the team of researchers at the University of Queensland’s Queensland Brain
Institute CJCADR believes that if applied early, this ultrasound therapy can be
more effective than Alzheimer's drugs, which don't remove the Amyloid-β and are
prohibitively expensive.
Even
better, this technique can utilize existing ultrasound technology to make it
possible to target the brain directly with drugs. This by the ultrasound
activated microbubbles opening up the blood-brain barrier to allow drug
cocktails into the brains of Alzheimer's
disease patients.
Already
a neurosurgeon at the University of Toronto in Canada, Dr. Todd Mainprize, has
started clinical trials for drugs that can treat brain gliomas (brain cancer)
by using ultrasound and microbubbles to open up the blood brain barrier and let
these experimental drugs into the brain as mentioned in the article “Ultrasound
therapies target brain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease”, published 11 March
2015 by Emily Underwood, Science Magazine.
However,
a procedure has to be established in how to use the Ultrasound to remove the
neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques into the brains of humans. Also, a special probe
may have to be developed as well as an ultrasound machine that can produce
ultrasound at much higher volumes so as to penetrate the thicker human skull.
Blood Transfusions to
remove Residual neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques in the brain – Oil Change Required
I'd
also personally recommend that blood transfusions be done on humans to remove
the neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques buildup in the brain.
The
ultrasound may have dislodged the proteins, but an infusion of younger blood
might also boost cognition in the patient based on the research from Standard University
published back in May 2014 as explained in my blog article
entitled “Stanford
School of Medicine discovers Younger Mice's Blood makes Older Mice Brain Cells
Grow Back - Hunger Games to Harvest the Blood of the Young”.
This
blood can be obtained from donors or produced via cloning Red Blood Cells in a
procedure developed by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service
published back in March 2014 as explained in my blog article
entitled “Scottish
National Blood Transfusion Service develops artificial Type O Negative Blood -
Stem Cell Cloning of Type O Negative Blood for Cheaper Transfusions in 2016”.
By
doing a transfusion, it would help to remove the patient's blood and any
residual neurotoxic amyloid-β plaques in the brain, ensuring full recovery and
long-term improvement in the patient's health.
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