Rapid treatment for Alzheimer's

Scientists cleared brain plaques and reversed Alzheimer's symptoms within hours, in mice. 

A new experimental Alzheimer's treatment has done what few others could: clear toxic plaques from the brain (in a mouse model of Alzheimer's) within hours – and even reverse memory loss in mice.

The therapy doesn't target neurons directly. Instead, it repairs the blood-brain barrier – the thin, protective membrane that separates the brain from the bloodstream and regulates what gets in and out.

In Alzheimer's disease, this barrier weakens. Waste products like amyloid-beta, a sticky protein that clumps into plaques, can't escape. Over time, they build up between neurons, interfering with communication and triggering inflammation.

Researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia and West China Hospital found a way to restore that barrier's natural "drainage system." Using engineered nanoparticles, they reactivated a key protein called low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1,) which helps shuttle amyloid-beta out of the brain and into the bloodstream for removal.

Within hours of a single injection, amyloid plaques dropped by about 45%. After three doses, the mice performed as well as healthy animals on memory tests – and the benefits lasted for six months.

"The long-term effect comes from restoring the brain's vasculature," says study coauthor Giuseppe Battaglia. "Once it starts working again, the brain can clean itself."

The findings offer a bold shift in Alzheimer's research: instead of forcing drugs across the brain's defenses, this approach repairs the defenses themselves.

It's still early – mouse models don't always translate to humans – but the study adds hope that the key to stopping Alzheimer's might lie not in the brain's neurons, but at its borders.

Read the study:

"Rapid amyloid-β clearance and cognitive recovery through multivalent modulation of blood–brain barrier transport." Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 7 October 2025.