Doctors Perform World's First-of-Its-Kind Ultrasound Therapy to Treat Alzheimer's

West Virginia University's (WVU) Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute led a first-of-its-kind experimental trial to treat people suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided ultrasound, reports the Epoch Times . The researchers conducted the process with a subject who lay flat in an MRI machine wearing a special helmet for three hours per session. The ultrasound delivered highly focused energy waves to the hippocampus, while micro bubbles were simultaneously injected into the subject's bloodstream and through vessels near the hippocampus. "These micro bubbles start oscillating, and they open up the blood-brain barrier," says WVU's Ali R. Rezai. This barrier remained open for a record 36 hours. "The goal of the technology is to open up the blood-brain barrier using ultrasound and allow the plaques, hopefully, to be reduced and allow the clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's to be improved as well," Rezai notes. The researchers think this technique may slow Alzheimer's progression, trigger the brain's immune system, reduce plaque deposition, and mitigate symptoms.