"Brain washing" with focused ultrasound is a thing. UEF’s new JPND projects explore focused ultrasound and multimodal interventions to fight dementia https://

"Brain washing" with focused ultrasound is a thing. UEF’s new JPND projects explore focused ultrasound and multimodal interventions to fight dementia https://www.uef.fi/en/article/uefs-new-jpnd-projects-explore-focused-ultrasound-and-multimodal-interventions-to-fight-dementia https://www.uef.fi/en/article/uefs-new-jpnd-projects-explore... >Focused ultrasound (FUS) is a non-invasive, ground-breaking brain stimulation technique suggested for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. FUS promotes transient opening of the blood-brain barrier and enhances the microglial-mediated clearance of beta-amyloid typically accumulating in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these beneficial effects are poorly known, which limits the full translation of FUS into the therapeutic arena. >The REBALANCE project coordinated by Professor Tarja Malm at the A. I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences aims to discover the key cellular targets and molecular mechanisms underlying FUS-induced brain cleaning and therapeutic efficacy in Alzheimer’s disease. The project partners have previously demonstrated therapeutic efficacy for FUS stimulation alone and combined with microbubbles. >We hypothesise that FUS, through the activation of mechanosensitive Piezo1 channels, enhances beta-amyloid clearance by microglial cells and facilitates the removal of waste from the brain into the blood stream. This occurs through the improvement of glymphatic flow together with transient increase in the blood-brain barrier permeability. Moreover, increased blood-brain barrier permeability enables drug delivery into the brain, further boosting beta-amyloid clearance,”