Recently, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, surgically implanted a pacemaker-like device into the brain of a patient in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, the first such operation in the United States. The device, which provides deep brain stimulation and has been used in thousands of people with Parkinson's disease, is seen as a possible means of boosting memory and reversing cognitive decline.
The surgery is part of a federally funded, multicenter clinical trial marking a new direction in clinical research designed to slow or halt the progression of the disease, which robs its victims of memories and the ability to perform daily tasks. Instead of relying on drug treatments, the researchers used low-voltage electrical charges delivered directly to the brain.
As part of a preliminary safety study in 2010, the devices were implanted in six Alzheimer's disease patients in Canada. Researchers found that patients with mild forms of the disorder showed sustained increases in glucose metabolism, an indicator of neuronal activity, over a 13-month period. Most Alzheimer's disease patients show decreases in glucose metabolism over the same period.
Some 40 patients are expected to receive the deep brain stimulation implant over the next year or so at Johns Hopkins and four other institutions in North America as part of the ADvance Study. Only patients whose cognitive impairment is mild enough that they can decide on their own to participate will be included in the trial.
