{"id":180353,"date":"2024-01-12T15:30:06","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T21:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/the-innovation-that-gets-an-alzheimers-drug-through-the-blood-brain-barrier"},"modified":"2024-01-12T15:30:06","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T21:30:06","slug":"the-innovation-that-gets-an-alzheimers-drug-through-the-blood-brain-barrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/the-innovation-that-gets-an-alzheimers-drug-through-the-blood-brain-barrier","title":{"rendered":"The innovation that gets an Alzheimer\u2019s drug through the blood-brain barrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, researchers at the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute reported<\/a> that by using focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier, they improved delivery of a new Alzheimer\u2019s treatment and sped up clearance of the sticky plaques that are thought to contribute to some of the cognitive and memory problems in people with Alzheimer\u2019s by 32%.<\/p>\n

For this issue of The Checkup, we\u2019ll explore some of the ways scientists are trying to disrupt the blood-brain barrier.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the West Virginia study<\/a>, three people with mild Alzheimer\u2019s received monthly doses of aducanumab, a lab-made antibody that is delivered via IV. This drug, first approved in 2021, helps clear away beta-amyloid, a protein fragment that clumps up in the brains of people with Alzheimer\u2019s disease. (The drug\u2019s approval was controversial<\/a>, and it\u2019s still not clear whether it actually slows progression of the disease.) After the infusion, the researchers treated specific regions of the patients\u2019 brains with focused ultrasound, but just on one side. That allowed them to use the other half of the brain as a control. PET scans revealed a greater reduction in amyloid plaques in the ultrasound-treated regions than in those same regions on the untreated side of the brain, suggesting that more of the antibody was getting into the brain on the treated side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, researchers at the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute reported that by using focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier, they improved delivery of a new Alzheimer\u2019s treatment and sped up clearance of the sticky plaques that are thought to contribute to some of the cognitive and memory problems in people with Alzheimer\u2019s [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}