Emerging technology aims to help Alzheimer's patients
MIAMI - Your brain is the most well-protected organ in your body.
For the most part, very little gets in and very little gets out, but as we know, it's not immune to injury or disease. Besides the skull, part of your brain's protection is called the blood-brain barrier.
As we mark Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month in June, local doctors are spreading the word about emerging technology that aims to open that barrier in hopes of helping Alzheimer's patients.
"The blood-brain barrier stays open for a day," explains Dr. Shaye Moskowitz, as he stands over an ultrasound machine at Broward Health.
The device, known as an ExAblate, may one day be an integral tool in stopping Alzheimer's in its tracks.
It's being used in a non-invasive clinical trial happening in South Florida currently screening patients.
"By using ultrasound, low-frequency ultrasound, targeting areas of the brain where the amyloid is deposited, we can disrupt the blood-brain barrier. By opening that blood-brain barrier temporarily, we allow things to get in and things to get out," said Dr. Moskowitz, Medical Director of Neurosciences at Broward Health.
"Continue to do that repetitively and the amyloid burden can go down. And in theory that will alter the course of the disease."
Amyloid is the protein found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, that sticks together in clumps forming plaques.
"The amyloid protein itself has been the target of a lot of the effort to intervene and interfere and alter the course of the disease itself with the logical assumption that if you alter the protein deposition, you alter the impact it might have," he said. "You have the potential ability to alter the very long course of the disease itself."
Similar research is being done in a study at Baptist Health.
"We know it's a coming tidal wave of medical conditions, of which by 2050 will overwhelm existing medical services and there's no known effective treatment, medical or surgical, to date," said Dr. Michael McDermott, the Chief Medical Executive at Miami Neuroscience Institute.
That's why this technology may be a game-changer.
"Ultimately, I think the goal down the road would be to combine this low-intensity focused ultrasound with a drug, because we know that opening the barrier would allow a drug to get into the brain, whereas in a normal situation, without that disruption, the drug won't get in," Dr. McDermott said.
"Like any other condition that seems to be unsolvable, the march of progress is a continuous effort, which leads to new therapies. I have no doubt that we'll come up with something," he added.
Both doctors are hopeful this research can one day help in the treatment of other illnesses, including cancer and addiction.
"Because Alzheimer's disease is so profound sociologically, economically, mentally, emotionally, it's a very big target for everything we can do to try to impact," said Dr. Moskowitz. "So Alzheimer's disease is logically a great place to apply this technology, but it will not be the only place that it gets applied."
For more information, visit Broward Health's Memory Disorder Center or the Miami Neuroscience Institute at Baptist Health South Florida.
