Some cancer treatments can cause so-called “chemo brain,” often defined as memory and attention problems
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An experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment involving flashing lights and low-pitched sounds may also help prevent cognitive problems after cancer treatment, sometimes called chemo brain, a study in mice suggests.
For Alzheimer’s disease, light and sound stimulation have been shown to alleviate memory and attention problems in humans in small trials, but are still being studied in larger studies.
The light flashes 40 times per second, which is 40 Hz, and the frequency of the sound is also 40 Hz. This frequency was originally chosen because people with Alzheimer’s disease have lower intensity of 40 Hz brain waves, which are associated with memory processing. The idea is that therapy stimulates these brain waves.
Subsequent studies have shown that this brain wave may bring wider benefits to the brain, including increasing the activity of immune cells and, more recently, strengthening its drainage system, which may help clear a type of protein called beta-amyloid. Albumen toxic proteins.
Cai Lihui The method was developed by an MIT professor who wanted to know if it could help cancer patients who develop memory and attention problems after chemotherapy and other cancer treatments. It is thought that these may be caused by damage to brain cells, but the exact mechanism is not known and there is no treatment.
In the latest study, Tsai’s team found that cancer-free mice exposed to light and sound for an hour a day and given a common chemotherapy drug called cisplatin were mentally sharper than those who had just received chemotherapy. The degree of decrease is small.
Clarity was assessed using a memory test that exposed mice to novel or familiar objects, and the animals generally showed greater interest in objects they had never seen before. Chemotherapy reduced the mice’s ability to discern objects, but light and sound treatments prevented this.
The treatment has several benefits, including reducing brain inflammation, reducing DNA damage, and reducing the loss of myelin (the insulation surrounding nerve cell fibers).
Nazanin Drakhshan Researchers at the University of Reading in the UK said the idea needs to be tested in humans to see if it offers overall benefits. If this treatment is given at the same time as chemotherapy, it can reduce cell death in the brain, which could promote the survival of cancer cells there, she said.
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