told United Press International<\/a>. \u201cSome of these can remove the plaques, but that alone hasn\u2019t stopped memory loss or slowed the disease enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cOur work suggests a different approach: instead of focusing solely on removing what\u2019s already gone wrong inside the brain, we aim to repair the system that keeps the brain healthy in the first place \u2014 its blood vessels and protective barrier,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Particularly exciting: the researchers found that the cognitive improvements in the mice were substantial. A mouse that they said was roughly the equivalent of a 90-year-old human, had \u201crecovered the behavior of a healthy mouse\u201d after receiving the treatment six months prior.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe long-term effect comes from restoring the brain\u2019s vasculature,\u201d Battaglia explained in the statement. \u201cWe think it works like a cascade: when toxic species such as amyloid-beta accumulate, disease progresses. But once the vasculature is able to function again, it starts clearing A\u03b2 and other harmful molecules, allowing the whole system to recover its balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s remarkable is that our nanoparticles act as a drug and seem to activate a feedback mechanism that brings this clearance pathway back to normal levels,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The supramolecular drugs reset the brain\u2019s ability to pass amyloid-beta through the blood-brain barrier by mimicking the natural processes that are interrupted by Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n
By renewing these waste-clearing pathways, the drugs allow levels of the harmful protein to drop \u2014 while simultaneously maintaining the brain\u2019s vascular system for improved brain function.<\/p>\n
\u201cRestoring this barrier improves blood flow, reduces inflammation, and helps the brain recover its balance,\u201d Battaglia told UPI. \u201cThis approach could slow Alzheimer\u2019s progression more effectively by treating one of its earliest and most overlooked causes, the breakdown of the brain\u2019s own defense system.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, plenty more research still has to be done before we can trial similar approaches in humans suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many ongoing efforts in animal models to find innovative methods of crossing the BBB to improve efficiency and precision for drug delivery,\u201d Alzheimer\u2019s Association director of scientific engagement Courtney Kloske told UPI, \u201cbut we are still a long way from these technologies being proven safe and effective in humans.\u201d<\/p>\n
More on Alzheimer\u2019s: Lab Mice Exposed to Microplastics Show Signs of Dementia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have developed a nanoparticle-based treatment that successfully reversed Alzheimer\u2019s disease in mice. As detailed in a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7277,100809,100810,49,48,16949,100807,84,55927,100808,100806,100811],"class_list":["post-206112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-amyloid-beta","tag-blood-brain-barrier","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cognitive-function","tag-giuseppe-battaglia","tag-health","tag-ibec","tag-protein-molecules","tag-sichuan-university","tag-west-china-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}