Noninvasive sensory stimulation to promote glymphatic-lymphatic clearance for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an incurable brain disease, distinguished by the progressive accumulation of toxic amyloid and tau protein aggregates that are partly due to impaired waste clearance by the glymphatic and meningeal lymphatic systems. We have recently shown that noninvasive Gamma ENtrainment Using Sensory stimuli (GENUS) to induce neural oscillations in the gamma frequency range (30-90 Hz) could ameliorate pathology in various AD mouse models. Mice subjected to GENUS regime exhibited positive effects on microglia, astrocytes and the brain vasculature as well as reduced accumulation of amyloid and hyperphosphorylated tau in respective amyloid and tauopathy mouse models. However, the impact of GENUS on the glymphatic/lymphatic systems in the clearance of amyloid and tau accumulation is not clear. We will use amyloid and tauopathy mouse models to determine whether and identify the mechanisms by which GENUS enhances paravascular fluid movement and thereby promotes meningeal lymphatic drainage and glymphatic clearance of brain toxic metabolites including those associated with amyloid and tau.