by Nicholas Stehle
May 28, 2015

Potential breakthroughs continue in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. We’ve written extensively about the disease, including a super-viral post from January about Stanford’s breakthrough, which could possibly lead to a cure in the not-too-distant future. We also wrote about a promising new drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s.

This time the news is out of Australia, where researchers restored the memories of mice who were affected by the build-up of plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In an article published in Science Translational Medicine and covered at ScienceAlert.com, we learn of the research, which fully restored the memory function of 75 percent of the mice they tested it on, using ultrasound waves to remove defective tau proteins. From the article at ScienceAlert.com:

Publishing in Science Translational Medicine, the team describes the technique as using a particular type of ultrasound called a focused therapeutic ultrasound, which non-invasively beams sound waves into the brain tissue. By oscillating super-fast, these sound waves are able to gently open up the blood-brain barrier, which is a layer that protects the brain against bacteria, and stimulate the brain’s microglial cells to activate. Microglila cells are basically waste-removal cells, so they’re able to clear out the toxic beta-amyloid clumps that are responsible for the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

The team conducting the trials believes this is breakthrough science. They anticipate trials on humans beginning as early as 2017 – just two years from now.