https://www.nibib.nih.gov/news-events/newsroom/ultrasound-se...
If this is as promising as it sounds it’ll surely process through the stages as it should and eventually reach human trials.
Looks to me they increased amyloid-B then removed the increase, which solved symptoms. I don't know much about this but my understanding was that Alzheimer disease had to have a bit more going on than just amyloid-B accumulation.
https://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/anti-amyloid-therapies-alzh...
> the key reason donanemab isn’t available through the NHS is its cost. The treatment is estimated to cost around £25,000 a year per patient
https://theconversation.com/alzheimers-drug-approved-in-the-...
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/does-it-work-does-...
But as I did when I wrote about the lecanemab data, let’s get some of the disclaimers out of the way at the beginning. I mentioned there that no Alzheimer’s drug candidate has ever stopped the progression of disease, and that of course means that no such candidate has ever reversed any of the damage, either. See below for more on that as it relates to donanemab, but what we’re looking for in all these cases is essentially slowing down the rate at which these patients deteriorate.
…
But here goes: lecanemab slowed decline by 27% on the CDR-SB scale, and donanemab slowed it by 29%. As you will can see from my earlier writeup on the former drug, opinion was very much divided on whether the lecanemab numbers would even be noticeable in real-world use (there is no standard for clinically meaningful efficacy in CDR-SB changes). So I would have to think that the same objections apply here. We cannot be sure that this drug will actually make a difference in the real-world care of patients with Alzheimer’s - not yet, anyway. This point is completely avoided in the Lilly press release, but it is nonetheless real and we will be hearing more about it from clinicians - well, if you listen closely above all the noise, that is.
I have friends that work in the medical tech field. A device they started developing around 2009 is barely getting into the field now after animal trials and clinical trials around the globe. It's an extremely long process requiring a lot of capital. And you likely haven't heard of it either (it is pretty effective for treating some heart related issues).
There are plenty of animal studies that show some promise that are simply abandoned for various reasons.
All that said, I thought the hypothesis that those amyloids are the cause of Alzheimers hasn't really worked out, there were other drugs that targetted those and apparently didn't work that well.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13195-022-00981-1 sounds mildly promising in one way, and disappointing viewed another way...
> Applications of ultrasound in medicine for therapeutic purposes have been an accepted and beneficial use of ultrasonic biological effects for many years. Low power ultrasound of about 1 MHz frequency has been widely applied since the 1950s for physical therapy.. In this overview, the Bioeffects Committee outlines the wide range of therapeutic ultrasound methods, which are in clinical use or under study, and provides general guidance for assuring therapeutic ultrasound safety.
I know basically nothing except ultrasound being used for the ultrasonic cleaning devices I see some youtubers using.
if anyone tries this let me know how it goes
First person experimentation is a distinctly bad idea. The other is also a bad idea.
They use them on pregnant women's fetuses, so I imagine using one on an adult skull wouldn't be that big of a deal.
I'm worried about people who just pick up any old ultrasound transducer and think more power is better. What if it was intended for Lithotripsy or industrial use? Everything could end in an instant.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/neurosurgeon-works-to-slow-alzh...