A new compound could be the first step towards developing a real Alzheimer’s cure, researchers say, because the new compound can actually “reactivate” the memory of Alzheimer’s patients.
As Alzheimer’s research progresses, we learn more about the disease. Plaque in the brain – which is responsible for the memory loss we associate with the disease – is not actually a cause of Alzheimer’s itself. In fact, scientists believe it is merely a symptom and therefore something we can treat.
That’s why researchers are looking for ways to develop an Alzheimer’s cure that will bring back the memories of patients whose brains are affected by plaque. One way to remove the plaque is to use drugs like lecanemab and aducanumab, which essentially “blast away” the plaque.
This keeps the brain free of plaques, which significantly slows cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients. However, these drugs do not actually correct the changes in the brain’s circuits and mechanisms, so researchers have turned to other methods instead – such as gamma oscillations.
By focusing on amplifying these high-frequency brain waves, researchers found they had taken a major step toward developing an Alzheimer’s cure that could restore memory in patients who have already shown some decline in this part of their brain.
They had to work on amplifying the waves inside the brain, not outside, and so far this seems to have shown some solid results. Of course, there is nothing similar on the market right now, and the researchers still have a long way to go before their results are completely conclusive.
However, these developments represent a major step forward in the ongoing fight against Alzheimer’s disease and the devastating consequences it has on people around the world. The researchers published their findings in the journal PNAS.
