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Review
. 2022 Mar 24:16:854992.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.854992. eCollection 2022.

Neurotechnological Approaches to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Shen Ning  1   2 , Mehdi Jorfi  1   3 , Shaun R Patel  1 , Doo Yeon Kim  1 , Rudolph E Tanzi  1
Affiliations
Review

Neurotechnological Approaches to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Shen Ning et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, clinically defined by progressive cognitive decline and pathologically, by brain atrophy, neuroinflammation, and accumulation of extracellular amyloid plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles. Neurotechnological approaches, including optogenetics and deep brain stimulation, have exploded as new tools for not only the study of the brain but also for application in the treatment of neurological diseases. Here, we review the current state of AD therapeutics and recent advancements in both invasive and non-invasive neurotechnologies that can be used to ameliorate AD pathology, including neurostimulation via optogenetics, photobiomodulation, electrical stimulation, ultrasound stimulation, and magnetic neurostimulation, as well as nanotechnologies employing nanovectors, magnetic nanoparticles, and quantum dots. We also discuss the current challenges in developing these neurotechnological tools and the prospects for implementing them in the treatment of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; amyloid; diagnosis; neurotechnologies; therapeutic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The evolution of Alzheimer’s disease. Timeline of major discoveries, technologies, therapeutics, diagnostics, and clinical trials for AD. Sources for images used in Figure 1 are available in the Supplementary Material.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Current AD treatments and targets. Panel (A) commonly accepted AD disease progression pathway while highlighting commonly targeted pathways in AD therapeutics, (B) visualization of the time point those therapies are tackling in respect to the progression of the disease. Portions of the figure was created with BioRender.com.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Neurotechnology publications and devices for AD. (A) Top notable companies with drugs for AD, (B) percentage of AD drugs in phase 1, 2, and 3 of clinical trials, (C) number and target of drugs in phase 2 clinical trials, (D) number and target of drugs in phase 3 clinical trials, (E) number of publications related to the treatment and diagnosis of AD using neurotechnology or stimulation since 2010. Google scholar search keywords used include “neurotechnology,” “Alzheimer’s disease,” and either “diagnostic” or “treatment”. (F) The number of brain stimulation medical devices in clinical trials for the treatment of AD was obtained from clinicaltrials.gov, a resource provided by the United States National Library of Medicine. tDCS, transcranial direct current stimulation; tACS, transcranial alternating current stimulation; TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation; ECT, electroconvulsive therapy; DBS, deep brain stimulation; tVNS, transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Neurotechnologies using neurostimulation for AD. Summary figure showing tDCS, DBS, TMS, light, and sound modalities as non-invasive neurostimulation treatments for AD therapeutics. Neurostimulation, including deep brain stimulation, can impact brain circuitry including the cholinergic circuit (purple) and the hypothalamus-hippocampal network (orange). Direct stimulation of the amygdala-hippocampal (blue) circuits has also been shown to improve memory in rodent models. Portions of the figure was created with BioRender.com.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Neurotechnologies based on magnetic fields and magnetic nanoparticles for AD. (A) Integration of nanotechnology with neurostimulation for the diagnosis and treatment of AD. Future clinical integration can include nanoparticles as both a diagnostic tool and potential therapeutic modality if integrated with a neurostimulation tool, such as magnetic stimulation. (B) Visual representation of an emerging domain integrating neurostimulation, nanovectors, and pharmaceutics/biologics. Portions of the figure was created with BioRender.com.
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