Doctors cracked open the brain's barrier with sound waves

Doctors at West Virginia University's Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute used focused ultrasound guided by MRI to briefly loosen that barrier in three Alzheimer's patients already receiving the antibody drug aducanumab, opening a temporary gap just large enough to let more of the drug through in targeted brain regions.

Ali Rezai's team sonicated selected regions on one side of the brain during six monthly infusions and left the matching regions on the other side untreated as an internal comparison. On PET scans, amyloid plaque fell more in the treated regions than in the untreated ones.

This was a small, early-stage feasibility study of only three patients with no control group receiving ultrasound alone, so it shows the approach is safe and biologically active, not that it meaningfully slows memory loss. Biogen later discontinued aducanumab to focus on other drugs, after years of dispute over its clinical benefit, leaving open whether faster plaque clearance from any drug actually helps patients.

Three patients, one barrier, one opening.