New low-intensity, focused ultrasound technique could noninvasively help aging and injured brains

Good news! There were similar news recently about new applications or advances of ultrasound.

"In brief

• Stanford researchers discovered a drug-free ultrasound method to cleanse aging and injured brains.
• The technique showed promising results in reducing inflammation and waste in mouse brains following simulated strokes.
• The researchers plan to initiate human clinical testing soon, potentially offering a non-invasive treatment for neurological disease.

...

current ideas to promote cerebrospinal fluid cleaning are either rather invasive or require drugs that may not be safe or effective in people. ...

making a helmet people can wear that delivers ultrasound to the brain, and we plan to initiate clinical testing of this protocol in the next few months ..."

From the abstract:

"Impaired clearance of neurotoxic debris in the brain exacerbates neurologic disease and presents a promising therapeutic target. Pharmacologic therapies can enhance meningeal lymphatic clearance in preclinical models but may be limited by systemic toxicities or invasive administration.

Here we report a low-intensity, focused ultrasound protocol that noninvasively clears pathogenic substances from the cerebrospinal fluid and brain interstitium in mice.

Using two models of hemorrhagic stroke, we demonstrate that this protocol clears the cerebrospinal fluid and interstitium of blood cells, which accumulate in the deep cervical lymph nodes via meningeal lymphatics. The protocol directly modulates molecular processes, including mechanosensitive channels, to shift microglial phenotypes and astrocytic aquaporin localization to reduce neuroinflammation and neurocytotoxicity.

In the intracerebral hemorrhage model, it improves behavioral outcomes and increases survival with greater efficacy than a pharmacologic benchmark. The protocol satisfies Food and Drug Administration safety guidelines, supporting clinical translatability.

If demonstrated effective clinically, it may provide therapeutic benefit not only in hemorrhagic stroke but also in other neurologic disorders that involve impaired debris clearance."

New ultrasound technique could help aging and injured brains | Stanford Report "A non-invasive, drug-free ultrasound method helps cleanse the brain and reduce inflammation, potentially offering a radically simple new approach to treating neurological diseases."

Clearance of intracranial debris by ultrasound reduces inflammation and improves outcomes in hemorrhagic stroke models (open access)

Fig. 1: UDC enhances the clearance of neurotoxic hemorrhagic debris from the CSF and interstitial brain compartments.