Health & Science

Can electric pulses reverse Alzheimer’s?; An ancient lake on Mars; A disgusting miracle treatment; Shape-shifting DNA

Can electric pulses reverse Alzheimer’s?

Frustrated by the mediocre results of drugs designed to combat Alzheimer’s disease, researchers are trying a new treatment: brain pacemakers. The devices have now been implanted in several dozen patients’ brains, where they provide constant electrical stimulation to damaged regions involved in memory. Kathleen Sanford, who has early-onset Alzheimer’s, became one of the first patients to test the new treatment several months ago. Doctors at Ohio State University drilled holes in her skull and implanted tiny wires, which transmit pulses from a battery-powered generator lodged near her collarbone. Researchers will now observe Sanford for two years to see the results. “We’re getting tired of not having other things work,” neurologist Douglas Scharre tells the Associated Press. The technique, called deep brain stimulation (DBS), has been used before to help block the tremors of Parkinson’s disease and, experimentally, to curb the appetite of obese people. Researchers got the idea to test DBS on people with dementia when its electrical jolts awakened lost memories in a man receiving the treatment for obesity. Brain stimulation won’t reverse Alzheimer’s root cause—which appears to be the buildup of plaques in brain circuits—but the electric current may restore communication between neurons, Scharre says, and thus “make the brain work better.”

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