{"id":309481,"date":"2021-07-27T20:20:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T17:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/light-flash-treatment-might-help-slow-alzheimers\/"},"modified":"2021-07-27T20:20:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T17:20:01","slug":"light-flash-treatment-might-help-slow-alzheimers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/light-flash-treatment-might-help-slow-alzheimers\/","title":{"rendered":"#’Light flash’ treatment might help slow Alzheimer’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#’Light flash’ treatment might help slow Alzheimer’s<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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While efforts to develop Alzheimer’s medications have so far borne little fruit, new research highlights the therapeutic promise of two non-drug tools: light and sound.\n <\/p>\n

According to a pair of small new studies, exposing Alzheimer’s patients to an hour a day of carefully modulated light and\/or sound app<\/a>ears, over time, to slow down the telltale brain degeneration that typifies disease progression.<\/p>\n

How? By bolstering and reinforcing a particular type of rhythmic brain wave pattern\u2014called “gamma waves”\u2014which are known to diminish in power among patients battling Alzheimer’s.<\/p>\n

“Our completely noninvasive approach to manipulate the power of gamma brain waves works by simply showing mice or people flickering light and buzzing sound at a particular frequency,” explained Li-Huei Tsai.<\/p>\n

Tsai is director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a>. In 2016, she was among a team of researchers who first pioneered testing of this sensory stimulation technique\u2014nicknamed “GENUS”\u2014 among mice.<\/p>\n

That earlier effort yielded encouraging results. After exposing mice with Alzheimer’s to visible light flashes at a frequency of 40 Hz, the animal study team found they were able to cut down amyloid beta plaque levels in the brain’s visual cortex region.<\/p>\n

Amyloid plaque buildup in the brain has long been considered a key sign of Alzheimer’s. The specific light flash frequency deployed in the study was designed to match the natural frequency sweet spot of gamma brain waves.<\/p>\n

The two new investigations set out to see whether that initial success with mice could be replicated in people.<\/p>\n

One was led by Dr. Diane Chan, a neurologist and postdoctoral clinical fellow at MIT, and a member of Tsai’s lab.<\/p>\n

Chan and her colleagues enlisted 15 patients diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s. Over a three-month period, part of this group was given equipment to self-administer a daily bout of carefully patterned and synchronized light and sound. Each daily session for this treatment group was an hour in length. <\/p>\n

As a point of comparison, the other patients were exposed to daily “sham” sessions of constant light and white noise.<\/p>\n

Three months out, brain scans revealed that brain wave potency improved in the treatment group, while signs of Alzheimer’s-related brain degeneration slowed. The treatment group also performed better on subsequent face and name recognition tests, with no notable side effects.
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The second study was led by Mihaly Hajos, a neurophysiologist and professor adjunct at Yale University School of Medicine, and chief scientific officer at Cognito Therapeutics, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.<\/p>\n

Hajos and his colleagues worked with 74 mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s patients. For six months, half the patients underwent similar one-hour daily 40 Hz audio-visual exposure sessions. The other half underwent daily sham sessions.<\/p>\n

This team determined that while brain degeneration linked to Alzheimer’s did continue to unfold among the treatment group, it did so at a 65% reduced rate when stacked up against the non-treatment group.<\/p>\n

Both studies were presented Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association annual meeting, being held online and in Denver. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. <\/p>\n

Tsai cautioned that since both investigations involved small groups of patients, more and larger studies will be needed.<\/p>\n

Still, she said she was “cautiously optimistic,” given that both efforts “indicate that GENUS is safe and people tolerate the treatment well; it preserved the brain volume in Alzheimer’s patients; it preserved the connectivity of the brain in Alzheimer’s patients, and it preserved some cognitive and daily function in Alzheimer’s patients.”<\/p>\n

Rebecca Edelmayer, senior director of scientific engagement at the Alzheimer’s Association, was not part of these studies, and suggested that the exploration of “outside-the-box ideas” of this kind is to be welcomed.<\/p>\n

“It is encouraging that we are now seeing Alzheimer’s treatment and prevention studies that incorporate a variety of approaches,” she noted, “including traditional drug therapies, lifestyle approaches, and non-drug therapeutic elements such as were used in these studies.”<\/p>\n

At the same time, Edelmayer stressed that as a “relatively novel concept,” light and sound therapy is not yet ready for prime time, and “much more research will still be needed to inform whether this could be a safe and effective approach for treatment.”\n <\/p>\n\n

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Unusual copper and iron found forming in brains of Alzheimer’s patients\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n More information:<\/strong>
\n There’s more on GENUS research at U.S. National Institute on Aging<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n Copyright \u00a9 2021 HealthDay<\/a>. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n ‘Light flash’ treatment might help slow Alzheimer’s (2021, July 27)
\n retrieved 27 July 2021
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news<\/a>\/2021-07-treatment-alzheimer.html<\/p>\n

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