For this trial, six Alzheimer’s patients, ages 50-85, will undergo two non-invasive focused ultrasound procedures. For the first stage, Insightec's Exablate Neuro low-frequency platform will apply focused ultrasound in a small area of the right frontal lobe, and images will evaluate if the BBB was temporarily opened. In the second stage, approximately one month later, a similar procedure to the same patient will target a larger area of the right frontal lobe, and additional images will again evaluate if the BBB is reopened. No drugs will be administered in the study.
“Our trial investigates, for the first time, the use of focused ultrasound to open the BBB in patients with early-to-moderate AD, to determine both its safety and technical feasibility,” says Nir Lipsman, MD, co-principal investigator. “Results from our study will help us plan future clinical trials to establish what role focused ultrasound may play, whether alone or in conjunction with medical treatments, in the management of Alzheimer’s.”
Adds Sandra Black, MD, Sunnybrook Senior Scientist and co-principal investigator, “It is possible that focused ultrasound may provide an important method for more effectively delivering antibodies to the brain and may therefore one day be a treatment for Alzheimer’s – we just don’t yet know. It's important to note that at this point we are assessing only the feasibility and safety of opening the BBB in these patients.”
Alzheimer’s is the most common neurodegenerative condition, and it's estimated that it will affect more than 13 million Americans by 2050. The accumulation of extracellular beta amyloid and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles are believed responsible for cell death and tissue loss in Alzheimer’s patients. Medical treatments to date have been only modestly effective at slowing cognitive decline and can only treat the symptoms.
Funded by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, this study lays the groundwork for using focused ultrasound to enable medications to reach the brain that are typically too large to penetrate the BBB.
“A challenge for Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics is the blood-brain barrier, which significantly limits the passage of potentially effective therapies into the brain. This effort is a small but critical step in what could potentially be a game-changing treatment by enhancing drug delivery to the areas of the brain where they are needed, and in much higher concentrations than can be achieved through intravenous or oral administration.” –Foundation Chairman Neal Kassell, MD.
“This is a significant milestone in the development of our MR-guided focused ultrasound technology,” adds Eyal Zadicario, General Manager at Insightec Israel. “Exablate Neuro was designed as a platform to support a wide range of transcranial applications and expand innovation in the neuroscience field. In the current study, it is used in a new approach – to tackle neurodegenerative diseases by opening the BBB. This is just a first step, and we will continue to push the technology to make significant impact where it matters most – to patients.”
For more information on the clinical trial, which is open to Canadian residents only, contact focusedultrasound@sunnybrook.ca or call 416-480-6100, ext. 3773.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
By using FUSF’s AI agent, you acknowledge and agree that your use is governed by FUSF’s Terms of Use Agreement. If you do not agree to be bound by the Terms of Use Agreement, you may not access or use FUSF’s AI agent.
