A recent study showed that noninvasive Gamma ENtrainment Using Sensory stimuli (GENUS) reduced the accumulation of amyloid in mice models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) through the brain's glymphatic system. The study, conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Westlake University in China, and Boston University, was partially funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and published in the journal Nature. The glymphatic system plays a critical role in clearing soluble proteins and metabolic waste from the brain. The system involves arterial pulsation that drives the influx of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) along blood vessels into the brain. Then, within the brain, an exchange of CSF and interstitial fluid (ISF) is facilitated by the AQP4 channels in the endfeet of astrocyte cells, a type of glial cell. (The endfeet are the part of the cell surrounding the blood vessels.) This is followed by the efflux of ISF, with waste being transported out of the brain and collected in part by lymphatic vessels. Aging and AD, however, can weaken the functioning of the glymphatic system by reducing arterial pulsation, lessening CSF–ISF exchange, and diminishing lymphatic drainage, leading to the toxic accumulation of amyloid and tau protein aggregates. |
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