The researchers implemented a safety switch on the blood-brain barrier

clinical trial, published today, opened the blood-brain barrier of five Alzheimer's patients in an invasive and reversible way. The results showed that the procedure was safe, but the effect of focused ultrasound on improving the clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's disease was inconclusive.
, commonly known as Alzheimer's disease, is characterized by a loss of cognitive function in the brain. According to the International Alzheimer's Association, there are currently about 48 million patients worldwide. There are currently about 6 million people with Alzheimer's disease in China, mainly the elderly. There is no effective treatment to cure Alzheimer's patients.
researchers point out that the blood-brain barrier prevents therapeutic drugs from reaching the brain, while focusing on ultrasound combined microbuses effectively opens the blood-brain barrier to remove amyloid protein from the brains of animal models of Alzheimer's disease. In addition, focused ultrasound can also be implanted to act on patients with brain tumors.
Nir Lipsman of the Sonnybrook Health Science Center in Toronto, Canada, and colleagues used an invasive device to focus ultrasound irradiation on the amyloid aggregation area of the right frontallobe of the brain in five mild to moderate Alzheimer's patients (three men and two women). The results showed that this operation was able to open the blood-brain barrier of 5 patients quickly and reversiblely without significant adverse reactions. However, no significant clinical changes were detected in the patient's amyloid imaging markers or cognitive function.
the results show that the procedure is safe, but whether it can effectively remove amyloid protein and improve cognitive function still needs to be confirmed by large-scale studies. (Source: Lu Yi, China Science Daily)