Title |
Scanning ultrasound removes amyloid-β and restores memory in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model
|
---|---|
Published in |
Science Translational Medicine, March 2015
|
DOI | 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaa2512 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Gerhard Leinenga, Jürgen Götz |
Abstract |
Amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We present a nonpharmacological approach for removing Aβ and restoring memory function in a mouse model of AD in which Aβ is deposited in the brain. We used repeated scanning ultrasound (SUS) treatments of the mouse brain to remove Aβ, without the need for any additional therapeutic agent such as anti-Aβ antibody. Spinning disk confocal microscopy and high-resolution three-dimensional reconstruction revealed extensive internalization of Aβ into the lysosomes of activated microglia in mouse brains subjected to SUS, with no concomitant increase observed in the number of microglia. Plaque burden was reduced in SUS-treated AD mice compared to sham-treated animals, and cleared plaques were observed in 75% of SUS-treated mice. Treated AD mice also displayed improved performance on three memory tasks: the Y-maze, the novel object recognition test, and the active place avoidance task. Our findings suggest that repeated SUS is useful for removing Aβ in the mouse brain without causing overt damage, and should be explored further as a noninvasive method with therapeutic potential in AD. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 209 | 25% |
United Kingdom | 40 | 5% |
Canada | 29 | 3% |
Spain | 29 | 3% |
Australia | 20 | 2% |
France | 14 | 2% |
Brazil | 13 | 2% |
Mexico | 11 | 1% |
Germany | 10 | 1% |
Other | 107 | 13% |
Unknown | 354 | 42% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 708 | 85% |
Scientists | 81 | 10% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 28 | 3% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 18 | 2% |
Unknown | 1 | <1% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 19 | 2% |
United Kingdom | 10 | 1% |
Canada | 3 | <1% |
Germany | 3 | <1% |
Spain | 2 | <1% |
Chile | 2 | <1% |
Finland | 2 | <1% |
Korea, Republic of | 1 | <1% |
Australia | 1 | <1% |
Other | 7 | <1% |
Unknown | 843 | 94% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 213 | 24% |
Researcher | 166 | 19% |
Student > Bachelor | 111 | 12% |
Student > Master | 84 | 9% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 45 | 5% |
Other | 152 | 17% |
Unknown | 122 | 14% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 188 | 21% |
Neuroscience | 122 | 14% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 112 | 13% |
Engineering | 87 | 10% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 70 | 8% |
Other | 149 | 17% |
Unknown | 165 | 18% |