A possible treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has ‘stimulated’ the imaginations of neuroscientists at the University of Lethbridge.
“All these baby boomers are arriving into their 70s and 80s, so there’s going to be a high incidence of dementia,” said Dr. Byran Kolb, emeritus professor of neuroscience at the U of L.
Recent findings are showing positive results in warding off the chronic neurodegenerative disease.
A team of researchers including Kolb applied tactile stimulation — or light massaging — to mice affected by Alzheimer’s for 15 minutes, three times a day.
They found those mice showed improved cognitive and motor skills, while anxious behaviours were reduced.
“We could give it to the animals as adults at around two months, just prior to the onset (of Alzheimer’s) or we could do it when they were infants. Whatever was going on, it was producing changes in the brain that were beneficial,” Kolb said.
“It shows another way that we shouldn’t just be thinking about the neuropathology and the direct things that are going on with the brain,” said Dr. Josh Armstrong, a research scientist with the Alzheimer Society of Canada (ASC). “It’s also what else is going on with the whole system that’s having an impact.”
Armstrong recently authored the ASC’s landmark study on dementia, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common form
The microsimulation study found if the onset of dementia is delayed by one year, nearly half a million cases of dementia in Canada could be avoided over a 30 year period.
Armstrong believes the U of L’s research could help in that regard.
“Tactile stimulation might be a way to push off dementia onset for some time,” Armstrong said.
“That, combined with other kind of work to reduce risk, might lead to some substantial impacts on not only individuals, but across our population.”
“If you were taking people who were my age, for example — 75 in my case — hopefully not showing any symptoms yet, you could start saying this is a preventative treatment that we could engage,” Kolb said.
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