Hope for recovery
Ultrasound promises to cope with dementia
Evgenia Efimova, Vesti
Japanese scientists report success in using ultrasound to treat cognitive dysfunction in mice with simulated vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The latter are the two most common forms of dementia (acquired dementia).
The effect of ultrasound on the brain improved the formation of blood vessels, as well as the regeneration (restoration) of nerve cells.
Specialists from Tohoku University, led by cardiologist Hiroaki Shimokawa, conducted an experiment with two groups of rodents.
Some animals underwent a surgical procedure that reduced blood flow to the brain, which mimicked the effects of vascular dementia in the human body.
The other part of the mice was genetically engineered to have a condition resembling Alzheimer's disease (the most common type of dementia is a progressive brain disease).
Then the specialists applied low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) to the entire brain of animals from both groups. The procedure was carried out for three 20-minute sessions a day.
Thus, mice with vascular dementia received such treatment every other day for five days (a total of three days of therapy), and rodents with Alzheimer's disease underwent such a procedure for 11 days over a three-month period.
After that, the scientists conducted behavioral tests and compared the results with data from a control group of rodents that did not receive LIPUS treatment. As a result, animals from the first two groups showed a significant improvement in cognitive function.
Upon closer examination, it was found that the treatment caused an increase in the expression of a special enzyme involved in the formation of blood vessels, along with an increase in the amount of protein that plays a key role in the preservation and growth of nerve cells.
It is noted that experts have not recorded any side effects.
"LIPUS therapy is a non–invasive physical therapy that can be applied to elderly patients at high risk [of developing the disease] without the need for surgery or anesthesia, it can also be reused," says Shimokawa.
Figure from the press release of Tohoku University Ultrasound applied to the brain could help treat patients with dementia – VM.
By the way, these results do not contradict the conclusions of the previous study of the Shimokawa group, in which LIPUS was used to stimulate the formation of blood vessels in pigs suffering from myocardial ischemia.
The results of the study are presented in the scientific publication Brain Stimulation.
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