Light up your mind: A novel light-based treatment for neurodegenerative diseases
Researchers review growing knowledge on the methods and applications of light therapy in treating neurodegenerative diseases
2021-04-19
(Press-News.org) A lot about the human brain and its intricacies continue to remain a mystery. With the advancement of neurobiology, the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases (ND) has been uncovered to a certain extent along with molecular targets around which current therapies revolve. However, while the current treatments offer temporary symptomatic relief and slow down the course of the disease, they do not completely cure the condition and are often accompanied by a myriad of side effects that can impair normal daily functions of the patient.
Light stimulation has been proposed as a promising therapeutic alternative for treating various ND like Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), cognitive and sleep disorders. Light therapy consists of controlled exposure to natural daylight or artificial light of specific wavelengths. While neurologists worldwide have begun testing its use in clinical practice, less remains understood about the mechanisms behind how light affects neurological function.
Thus, in a review article now published in Chinese Medical Journal, researchers from China comprehensively summarize the growing knowledge on the mechanism of action, effectiveness, and clinical applications of LT in the treatment of ND. Neurologist and author Dr. Chun-Feng Liu explains how their work can advance our understanding of novel emerging therapies for ND. "While light therapy has been investigated in mental and sleep disorders, comprehensive knowledge on its use in neurodegenerative diseases in lacking. We therefore sought to shed light on the potential therapeutic methods and implications of light therapy," he states.
Our body function is tuned to a circadian or day and night rhythm. The clock that controls this rhythm is housed in the hypothalamus region of the brain. The genes expressed in this region are crucial in maintaining the circadian rhythm. Thus, a malfunction of these genes can disrupt the rhythmic cycle. These defects have been associated with neurodegenerative, metabolic and sleep disorders. External stimuli such as light, physical activity and food intake can help reset the clock and restore normal circadian rhythms, thus alleviating symptoms.
Another mechanism by which the clock controls circadian rhythms is through the secretion of the melatonin (MT) hormone. MT secreted by the pineal gland in the brain is known to control sleep patterns as it is secreted in higher amounts in the night than the day. Light stimulation in this case suppresses the secretion of MT during the day time and thus reduces drowsiness.
Interestingly, different tissue and organs in the body may respond differentially to light stimulation. Furthermore, different biomolecules expressed in circulating immune cells and stem cells are sensitive to specific wavelengths of light and thus elicit different responses by promoting the secretion of neurotrophic factors that can rescue neuronal functions.
Next, the researchers go on to discuss the application of light stimulation in specific neurodegenerative disorders. In case of AD, a progressive dementia, sleep disturbance has been associated with an increased expression of biomarkers that promote disease progression. Patients with AD often experience confusion, emotional distress and hyperactivity after dusk and through the night. Preliminary clinical studies on AD mouse models as well as patients with AD suggest that light stimulation helps restore memory and cognition and decreases the burden of the pathogenic amyloid-β protein in the brain. Furthermore, LT has been shown to improve sleep quality and duration in patients with sleep disorders while bright environments help reduce anxiety and aggressive behaviors in patients with dementia.
In case of PD, patients suffer from motor impairment, tremors and posture imbalance and also display non-motor symptoms such as insomnia, depression and fatigue that can collectively impair their quality of life. While LT has been shown to decrease non-motor symptoms to some extent, evidences on its direct benefits towards motor-function however are limited.
The use of LT in other neurodegenerative disorders is currently at preclinical stages and needs to be pursued further. Overall, LT offers a safe and cost-effective alternative for treatment of ND. Additional studies and large scale clinical trials in this direction can help establish its effectiveness as a potential therapeutic strategy.
Explaining the long term clinical applications of LT, Dr. Liu says, "The light box or light therapy lamp will help improve the sleep quality of patients with sleep disorders. Light stimulation will also likely have therapeutic effects on neurodegenerative diseases and seasonal depression. Further studies are needed to elucidate its effectiveness."
This review not only advances our understanding on how LT functions in resetting the circadian rhythm and associated neurological symptoms but also highlights its applications in routine clinical practice.
INFORMATION:
Reference
Titles of original papers: Light therapy: a new option for neurodegenerative diseases
Journal: Chinese Medical Journal
DOI: 10.1097/CM9.0000000000001301
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-04-19
The brain's auditory system tracks the speed and location of moving sounds in the same way the visual system tracks moving objects. The study recently published in eNeuro lays the groundwork for more detailed research on how humans hear in dynamic environments.
People who use hearing aids have trouble discriminating sounds in busy environments. Understanding if and how the auditory system tracks moving sounds is vital to improving hearing aid technology. Prior research utilizing eye movements to gauge whether the brain is following the trajectory of a moving sound indicates it cannot. A new study from García-Uceda Calvo et al. instead used head movements, a more accurate measure of sound tracking.
The team analyzed head movements of hearing ...
2021-04-19
April 19, 2021--(BRONX, NY)--Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have developed a topical drug that regenerates and restores the function of erectile nerves damaged by radical prostatectomy, the most common treatment for localized prostate cancer. The drug was tested in rats, and the findings were published online today in JCI Insight.
"Erectile dysfunction (ED) after radical prostatectomy has a major impact on the lives of many patients and their partners," said study co-leader David J. Sharp, Ph.D., professor of physiology & biophysics and of ophthalmology and visual sciences and professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience at Einstein. "Since rats are reliable animal models in urologic research, our drug offers real hope of normal sexual ...
2021-04-19
DALLAS - April 19, 2021 - Treating people with Type 2 diabetes with a new once-a-week injectable insulin therapy proved to be safe and as effective as daily insulin injections, according to the results of two international clinical trials published online today in Diabetes Care. The studies suggest that the once-weekly treatment could provide a convenient alternative to the burden of daily insulin shots for diabetes patients.
Starting and maintaining insulin treatment remain a challenge for millions of patients worldwide with Type 2 diabetes. Fear of injections and the inconvenience and burden of injectable therapy contribute to the barriers against insulin therapy initiation and adherence. The effectiveness and safety of ongoing insulin treatment are also highly dependent ...
2021-04-19
Data from a GPS network in Colombia have revealed a shallow and fully locked part on the Caribbean subduction zone in the country that suggests a possible large earthquake and tsunami risk for the northwest region.
The locked patch south of Cartagena city is capable of generating a magnitude 8.0 earthquake every 600 years, said Sindy Lizarazo of Nagoya University in Japan, who presented the study at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)'s 2021 Annual Meeting.
Colombia lies in the middle of a complex tectonic zone, where the Caribbean, Nazca and South American tectonic plates and other smaller tectonic blocks converge. The Caribbean plate ...
2021-04-19
Boston College seismologist John Ebel and his colleagues have noted a pattern for some large California earthquakes: magnitude 4 or larger earthquakes occur at a higher rate along a fault in the two decades or more prior to a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake on the fault.
The findings prompted Ebel in 2017 to suggest a prospective test. He looked for the California faults that had magnitude 4 or larger earthquakes occurring at a rate higher than 0.5 earthquakes per year from 1997 to 2016. If the pattern holds, the next magnitude 6.7 earthquakes in California are most likely to ...
2021-04-19
Eighteen minutes might be all it takes to ensure a full recovery for stroke patients in rural South Carolina.
By changing EMS workflows and incorporating telemedicine techniques, physicians at MUSC Health have partnered with Georgetown Memorial Hospital and Hampton Regional Medical Center to significantly shorten the time between a patient's stroke symptom onset and their treatment, as recently reported in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases.
Through MUSC Health's Telestroke Network, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) can video chat with stroke specialists to begin a patient's consult before they even arrive at the hospital. ...
2021-04-19
A new study finds a naturally occurring "earthquake gate" that decides which earthquakes are allowed to grow into magnitude 8 or greater.
Sometimes, the "gate" stops earthquakes in the magnitude 7 range, while ones that pass through the gate grow to magnitude 8 or greater, releasing over 32 times as much energy as a magnitude 7.
"An earthquake gate is like someone directing traffic at a one-lane construction zone. Sometimes you pull up and get a green 'go' sign, other times you have a red 'stop' sign until conditions change," said UC Riverside geologist Nicolas Barth.
Researchers learned about this gate while studying New Zealand's Alpine ...
2021-04-19
April 19, 2021 - At the current rate of change, it will take more than 200 years for the proportion of women in orthopaedic surgery to reach parity with the overall medical profession, according to a study in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® (CORR®), a publication of The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons®. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
"Substantive changes must be made across all levels of orthopaedic education and leadership to steepen the current curve," concludes the report by Atul F. Kamath, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and colleagues. "Our findings support the need for changes in medical schools, orthopaedic residency ...
2021-04-19
Inside your body, cell movement plays a crucial role in many significant biological processes, including wound healing, immune responses and the potential spread of cancer.
"Most people don't die from having a primary tumor," said Kolade Adebowale, a graduate student in chemical engineering, and a member of the Chemical Biology Interface (CBI) graduate program in Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health (ChEM-H) at Stanford University. "The problem is when cancer cells from the tumor acquire the ability to metastasize or move to different parts ...
2021-04-19
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A survey of U.S. multiple sclerosis, or MS, specialist clinicians reveals the COVID-19 pandemic has created major changes in how they deliver care.
"Since the pandemic began, more than 95% of our survey respondents reported using telehealth platforms to provide care for their patients," said Dr. Elizabeth Morrison-Banks, a health sciences clinical professor of neurology in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, who led the survey reported in the journal Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders. "Approximately one half of the respondents were MS specialist neurologists, four out of five of whom indicated that COVID-19 had changed ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Light up your mind: A novel light-based treatment for neurodegenerative diseases
Researchers review growing knowledge on the methods and applications of light therapy in treating neurodegenerative diseases
