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Could Alzheimer’s disease one day be treated with flashes of light and clicks of sound? Scientists have now shown how high-frequency brain wave stimulation in mice can eliminate amyloid protein clumps associated with Alzheimer’s.
Previous research has shown that stimulating high-frequency brain waves, called gamma waves, could improve the brain’s ability to clear waste (waste that can contribute to neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s), but this study takes a closer look at the mechanism involved.
In tests on mice, a team led by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that light flashes and sound clicks at a frequency of 40 times per second (or 40 hertz) helped clear amyloid proteins from the system. glymphatic of the brain. , a ‘plumbing’ network that removes harmful substances.
An accumulation of amyloid protein is noted in Alzheimer’s brains, although scientists are not yet sure whether this aggregation is a direct cause of the disease; there’s probably a lot more going on, too.
“We do not yet have a linear map of the exact sequence of events that occur, but the findings from our experiments support this elimination pathway through the major glymphatic routes.” says Cognitive scientist Mitchell Murdock of MIT.
In the brains of mice engineered to show Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, the team noticed an increase in protective cerebrospinal fluid when gamma stimulation of light and sound was applied.
What’s more, pulsations in neighboring arteries also increased, further increasing the brain’s ability to eliminate biological waste. Finally, an increase in interstitial fluid Exit from the brain was noted, confirming that waste is more easily eliminated.
A more detailed analysis carried out by the researchers showed the importance of the aquaporin-4 (AQP4) channel in the membranes of astrocyte cells – cells used by the central nervous system to support and protect the brain. When these channels were blocked, amyloid protein accumulation returned to normal, so this is a promising area for future studies to look more closely at.
Finally, an analysis of the chemical messages of RNA showed increased production of a previously linked to the fight against Alzheimer’s. All of these changes were apparently triggered by gamma stimulation in the mouse brains, which acts on a subset of neurons that produce several critical regulatory peptides in response to gamma waves.
These are all complex biological reactions that don’t necessarily mean much to non-scientists, but are useful information for researchers trying to discover more about the causes of Alzheimer’s and how the degradation it causes can be reversed, in particular by improving the brain’s ability to remove waste.
“Our findings establish novel mechanisms that recruit the glymphatic system to clear brain amyloid,” write the researchers in their published article.
The research has been published in Nature.