Forty-four million people worldwide, including 5.5 million Americans, currently have Alzheimer’s disease, and one in three people over 65 years of age will develop memory loss of some sort. That means the disease is becoming more common as our population ages, threatening a tidal wave of rising long-term care costs that could overwhelm families and swamp health care systems.
Finding a more effective drug is still imperative. It’s also essential to try novel approaches and leverage new technological innovations. Testing has begun involving a promising experimental therapy—one that involves no drugs and no surgery. The therapy, which uses a technique called magnetic resonance–guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS). Opening the blood-brain barrier with ultrasound could help treat this and other brain disorders.
Key Takeaways:
- High hopes that the therapy, which uses a technique called magnetic resonance–guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS), will one day help treat Alzheimer’s. MRgFUS offers an exciting opportunity with great potential.
- If the procedure works as we hope, physicians will be able to safely and noninvasively open the blood-brain barrier in targeted regions of the brain.
“We also think the technology will help the delivery of antibodies and medications to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, the biological seal that limits potential effective treatments from reaching their target tissue.”
