Treatment has potential to improve
behavioral and physical problems associated with the disease,
Israeli researchers say.
A new Tel Aviv University study reveals that hyperbaric oxygen
treatments may ameliorate symptoms experienced by people with
Alzheimer’s disease.
“This revolutionary treatment for Alzheimer’s disease uses a
hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which has been shown in the past to be
extremely effective in treating wounds that were slow to heal,” said
Prof. Uri Ashery of TAU’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and the
Faculty of Life Sciences, who led the research for the study.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, prescribed for conditions including
embolisms, burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness
and fibromyalgia, involves breathing in pure oxygen in a pressurized
room or chamber.
In this chamber, the air pressure is increased to twice that of
normal air. Under these conditions, oxygen solubility in the blood
increases and is transported by blood vessels throughout the body.
The added oxygen stimulates the release of growth factors and stem
cells, which promote healing.
The TAU scientists used a mouse model of
Alzheimer’s disease and built a custom-made hyperbaric oxygen
chamber suitable for small animals. Over the course of 14 days, the
team administered hyperbaric oxygen treatment to the mice for one
hour per day.
After the two weeks, the mice underwent a series of behavioral tests
as well as tissue biochemical tests to understand how hyperbaric
oxygen treatment affects the pathological signs associated with
Alzheimer’s disease.
The treatment was found to reduce behavioral deficiencies compared
to the non-transgenic control mice. Remarkably, the treatment also
reduced both plaque pathology and neuro-inflammation by about 40
percent.
A Hallmark Study
“We have now shown for the first time that hyperbaric oxygen therapy
can actually improve the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease and
correct behavioral deficits associated with the disease. This
research is extremely exciting as it explores a new therapy that
holds promise as a treatment of Alzheimer’s disease,” Ashery said.
The research was conducted by PhD student Ronit Shapira of TAU’s
Faculty of Life Sciences; Prof. Beka Solomon and Dan Frenkel of
TAU’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and Faculty of Life Sciences; and
Prof. Shai Efrati of TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Sagol School
of Neuroscience and Assaf-Harofeh Medical Center. It was published
in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
“There are serious clinical implications to this research,” said
Shapira. “Hyperbaric oxygen treatment is a well-tolerated and safe
therapy used in clinics around the world for various medical
conditions, including neurological disorders. Although further
research is needed to elucidate the underlying beneficial mechanisms
of the therapy and to evaluate its beneficial effects in various
Alzheimer patient populations, it holds great potential for the
treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Efrati called it a hallmark study.
“The beneficial physiological effects of
hyperbaric
oxygen therapy were directly demonstrated on Alzheimer-affected
brain tissue,” her said. “We assume that the main challenge in human
use will be to initiate the treatment at early stages before a
significant amount of brain tissue is lost.”
The researchers currently are testing the effectiveness of
hyperbaric oxygen treatment on an additional mouse model of
Alzheimer’s disease to investigate the mechanisms underlying its
impact on the disease.