Health · Medical Research · 5 hrs ago
Vibrating mattress and blood pressure drug shifted brain-linked proteins in small trial
Researchers at the University of Oulu in Finland tested a new approach that combines gentle mattress vibrations with blood pressure medication.
The trial involved 29 healthy people aged 27 to 61, not people with dementia.
After two doses of the medication and a session lasting just over half an hour, blood levels of two forms of amyloid beta and a brain-support protein called GFAP rose.
The change suggests these proteins may have moved from the brain into the blood, but the researchers did not measure brain protein levels directly.
Levels of tau, another protein linked to Alzheimer’s, did not change.
The approach is based on the brain’s natural process for clearing waste, which becomes less effective with age.
The findings are an early step, not proof of prevention or treatment: the study did not test memory or other thinking skills, and researchers say the rise in blood proteins could also reflect a temporary change in the blood-brain barrier.
The team says the results could inform future treatments, but the study reports no next trial or clinical use.
A small trial found that a blood pressure-lowering pill combined with a vibrating mattress session shifted levels of some brain-linked proteins in participants’ blood.
The study involved 29 healthy volunteers aged 27 to 61.
Researchers said the changes suggest some proteins may have been cleared from the brain, but the proteins were not directly measured there.
Levels of two types of amyloid beta and GFAP increased in the blood, while tau levels did not change.
The researchers said the approach could inform future treatments, but the trial did not test memory or other cognitive performance.
- Who
- Researchers led by a team from the University of Oulu in Finland studied 29 healthy volunteers aged 27 to 61.
- What
- Participants received two doses of a blood pressure-lowering pill and spent a little over half an hour on a vibrating mattress. The intervention shifted levels of some brain-linked proteins in their blood.
- When
- Not stated
- Where
- The research team was from the University of Oulu in Finland. The location of the trial was not stated.
- Why
- The researchers aimed to enhance the brain’s natural clearance system and examine whether proteins linked to neurodegenerative disease could be cleared more efficiently.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Participants received two doses of a blood pressure-lowering pill and a vibrating mattress session lasting a little over half an hour.
Blood levels of two types of amyloid beta and GFAP increased, while tau levels did not change.
ScienceAlert reported that the researchers had published their findings in Nature Communications.
- Participants
- 29 healthy volunteers
- Age range
- 27 to 61
- Mattress session
- A little over half an hour
- Proteins with increased blood levels
- Two types of amyloid beta and GFAP
- Protein with no change
- Tau
- Research institution
- University of Oulu, Finland
What people are saying
Alzheimer's disease and many other diseases that cause dementia are characterized by the gradual accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain over decades.
The results suggest that harmful proteins were cleared from the brain more efficiently than usual.
The effect largely resembled the physiological changes we have previously observed during sleep.