Scanning Ultrasound Removes Amyloid-? and Restores Memory in an Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Model
11th January 2025
Transgenic mice with increased amyloid-? (A?) production show several aspects of Alzheimer’s disease, including A? deposition and memory impairment. By repeatedly treating these A?-forming mice with scanning ultrasound, Leinenga and Götz now demonstrate that A? is removed and memory is restored as revealed by improvement in three memory tasks. These improvements were achieved without the use of any therapeutic agent, and the scanning ultrasound treatment did not induce any apparent damage to the mouse brain. The authors then showed that scanning ultrasound activated resident microglial cells that took up A? into their lysosomes. These findings suggest that repeated scanning ultrasound may be a noninvasive method with potential for treating Alzheimer’s disease.