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Sheffield (United Kingdom), September 16
Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, has long been associated with a buildup of plaques (protein clumps) in the brain. Israeli scientists have shown that one type of oxygen therapy can prevent new plaques from forming and even remove existing plaques in mice with Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists used a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease called 5xFAD. The genetically engineered mice were treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy to see if they could stop or slow the progression of the disease.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber. In the chamber, the air pressure is increased by two to three times more than the normal air pressure.
It is commonly used to treat decompression sickness (a condition that divers can suffer from), carbon monoxide poisoning, and some forms of stroke or brain injury. It works by forcing increased oxygenation of tissues with low oxygen content (hypoxia). And it could improve blood flow to the brain to nourish brain cells which are typically starved of blood, and therefore oxygen, in Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists at Tel Aviv University treated 15 six-month-old mice (about 30 human years) with hyperbaric oxygen therapy for one hour a day, five days a week for four weeks. The therapy not only reduced the number and size of plaques in the brains of the mice, it also slowed the formation of new plaques, compared to a control group of mice that did not receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Blood flow to the brain is reduced in people with Alzheimer’s. This study showed increased blood flow to the brain in mice receiving oxygen therapy, which helps clear plaques from the brain and reduces inflammation – a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
By improving blood flow to the brain, reducing plaque levels, and reducing hypoxia, mice given daily oxygen therapy began to show improvements in their cognitive abilities, such as their spatial recognition memory as well as contextual memory – the ability to remember emotional, social, spatial or temporal circumstances related to an event.
Not just mice
The researchers then used these results to assess the effectiveness of oxygen therapy in six people over 65 with cognitive decline. They found that 60 sessions of oxygen therapy, over 90 days, increased blood flow to certain areas of the brain and significantly improved patients’ cognitive abilities – improving memory, attention and speed of processing. information.
An earlier study found that oxygen therapy reduced plaques in the brain in another mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. And, before that, my colleagues and I published a study in Scientific Reports that showed that pure oxygen at normal atmospheric pressure can increase blood volume in the brains of six-month-old mice with Alzheimer’s disease, and this may be able to increase the removal of plaques from the brain.
Taken together, these results suggest that oxygen therapy may be able to reduce the cognitive decline associated with aging and dementia in mice and humans.
“I don’t think it can ‘cure’ Alzheimer’s disease in humans,” Professor Uri Ashery, senior research author, told The Times of Israel, “but it could drastically slow its progression and decline. gravity. “
However, it is important to note that the Israeli study was too small to draw any firm conclusions. Plus, 60 pressurized oxygen therapy sessions of one hour each are simply not achievable for most people.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy cannot yet be offered at home or in retirement homes, where most people with Alzheimer’s will be accommodated. And daily visits to a hospital or clinic are impractical for most people with the condition.
Rooms cost up to £ 100,000, with around £ 1,500 additional upkeep per year. And treatments cost between £ 40 and £ 250 per session. Given that there are almost a million people with dementia in the UK alone, it is clear that offering every patient hyperbaric oxygen therapy for 60 days is currently neither feasible nor economically viable. And the results, while promising in mice, have yet to be confirmed in people with Alzheimer’s disease in large-scale clinical trials. – The conversation
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