Ultrasound potentially could become a treatment for brain cancer and Alzheimer’s disease
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028704
Science : A clinical test will begin this month in which ultrasound will be used to deliver chemotherapy drugs to treat brain cancer. Ultrasound will briefly open the blood–brain barrier, which normally prevents drugs from reaching the brain. The risk is that ultrasound has the potential to directly damage brain tissue, so testing the technique on humans may not be as successful as earlier tests performed on rodents. Separately, Sunnybrook Research Institute’s Kullervo Hynynen, who first tested ultrasound’s effect on the blood–brain barrier, and his colleagues have used the technique on the brains of mice and found it eliminated abnormal clumps similar to those present in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. They reported that the cognitive ability of the treated mice was restored.
