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twasold · a year ago
This needs (2015). Surely if ultrasound was effective in replicated studies we’d have a treatment by now, right? Or have heard more about it?
YZF · a year ago
This assumes anyone attempted to replicate it or otherwise pursue it. I guess the question would be where are the studies that failed to replicate it.

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.

boxed · a year ago
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13195-021-00809-4 (2021) is the second hit on google scholar. Sounds a bit more involved than just ultrasound.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13195-022-00981-1 sounds mildly promising in one way, and disappointing viewed another way...

pstuart · a year ago
It takes a long time to go from the lab to commercialized use.

Dead Comment

technojunkie · a year ago
60 minutes did a segment for this type of treatment at WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience in West Virginia. It's intriguing.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/neurosurgeon-works-to-slow-alzh...

beams_of_light · a year ago
I watched that last year. It's very interesting research and seems effective not just for Alzheimers but for treatment of addiction as well. I'm seriously counting on this treatment for any family members who may end up being diagnosed with it later in life.
tim333 · a year ago
sneak · a year ago
Given that there doesn’t appear to be any harms from this treatment, why is it moral (or legal) to prevent humans from experimentally seeking it, standard “in mice” argument notwithstanding?
andy_ppp · a year ago
I don’t disagree but an issue could be that there’s plenty of people out there who would happily make up therapies that sound like they could work and take people’s money for unsound treatments.
deepnet · a year ago
Ultrasound selfies at home, clinical trial reports self administered ultrasound scans on par with professional ones.

https://www.nibib.nih.gov/news-events/newsroom/ultrasound-se...

gklitz · a year ago
The framework for clinical trials it to go from “there doesn’t appear to be any harm” to “we have reasonable proof that no harm is expected”.

If this is as promising as it sounds it’ll surely process through the stages as it should and eventually reach human trials.

Nuzzerino · a year ago
Eventually plus 10 years, as this article is 10 years old.
nine_k · a year ago
Business opportunity: add a 2 MHz ultrasound enmitter to standard headphones.
aeve890 · a year ago
I'll deep-fry and eat a brick and wash it down with motor oil if Apple ended up curing Alzheimer's

Dead Comment

transistor-man · a year ago
This paper was submitted march 2015, have there been subsequent studies in the last decade?

Deleted Comment

mmastrac · a year ago
Why would ultrasound removal of amyloid-B be effective while other chemical/medical treatments offering the same would not?
Krssst · a year ago
> Transgenic mice with increased amyloid-β (Aβ) production

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.

resoluteteeth · a year ago
Yes that is the major potential problem with this type of mouse model in general. Mice are modified to have a condition that resembles something like alzheimer's disease and then treatments are tested, but there's no guarantee that the underlying disease is actually the same, so if the condition that is induced in the mice is just a symptom rather than the underlying cause of the human disease, or just superficially resembles it, the treatment may not actually be effective in humans.
rich_sasha · a year ago
My understanding is, it's definitely true that the amyloid protein is toxic to brain tissue. It's just that targeting that tissue has not, to date, lead to a breakthrough.

I suppose in principle it could be because we don't ha e good ways to remove them, and this is it.

hnuser123456 · a year ago
Percussive maintenance is sometimes the most effective option.
pera · a year ago
> Anti-amyloids are expensive, and insurance won’t always cover them

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-...

twasold · a year ago
Insurance doesn’t cover them precisely because they don’t work.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/does-it-work-does-...

walterbell · a year ago
1Mhz ultrasonic _physical_ therapy devices are under $100, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3810427/ (2012)

> 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.

tonetegeatinst · a year ago
For ultrasound, are only certain frequencys possible or are they just not manufactured?

I know basically nothing except ultrasound being used for the ultrasonic cleaning devices I see some youtubers using.

dingdingdang · a year ago
Any indication of what frequencies are at play here? A regular ultrasound baby monitor is set at either 3Mhz or 2Mhz scan frequency and those have already been shown to induce stimulating effect when used on the head/brain afaicr.
yalogin · a year ago
Doesn’t this raise more questions though? If ultrasound impacts chemicals in the body, what about other forms of waves? Do we still have to find out how the body reacts to different frequencies and wavelengths?
sokka_h2otribe · a year ago
The impact of ultrasound on dissolving and breaking things in liquid is well studied in general engineering. I don't understand your open ended question about this raising questions. How so? We don't use microwaves for dissolving or breaking crystals anyway like we already do for ultrasound.
yalogin · a year ago
Ah I did not know it’s already understood, so assumed we are finding it out for the first time. The above comment was a mistake then, it’s how misinformation and scaremongering starts