WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute first in the world to open hippocampal blood brain barrier in Alzheimer’s patients

The West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute announced a new study published in partnership with Weill Cornell Medical Center that demonstrates the successful opening of the blood brain barrier in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex using focused ultrasound to treat six patients with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

This first-in-the-world study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. The effort is part of a Phase II clinical trial, sponsored by INSIGHTEC, which developed the technology and manufactures the focused ultrasound device, Exablate Neuro.

“The blood brain barrier has long presented a challenge in treating the most pressing neurological disorders. The ability to non-invasively and reversibly open the blood brain barrier in deep brain areas such as the hippocampus, offers a new potential in developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.”

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) separates the bloodstream from the brain tissue and limits potentially effective medicines, immunotherapy, gene therapy and other therapeutics of the brain. During this study, doctors injected microscopic bubbles into the patient’s bloodstream, and exposed the bubbles to focused ultrasound from a treatment helmet attached to the MRI, temporarily causing the blood brain barrier to open. Researchers targeted a deep part of the brain, the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, which are involved in memory processing and are affected early on by Alzheimer’s disease.

This study reported on four subjects treated at the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute and two at Weill Cornell Medical Center. All patients had early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The six participants safely underwent a total of 17 focused ultrasound treatments with immediate opening of the blood brain barrier and closure within 24 hours with no adverse events. The safe and reversible opening of the BBB provides an opportunity in the future to introduce therapies that would not normally reach the brain, such as medication, gene therapy, and immunotherapy, or to clear out pathological components, such as amyloid plaques in patients with Alzheimer’s.

Read the full story from WVU Medicine here.