Anyone who has had expertise with Alzheimer’s illness is aware of the agony of watching somebody fade away because it steals reminiscence and on the finish – an individual’s personal identification. Tonight – we’ll present you an experimental method to attempt to beat again Alzheimer’s. It’s been examined on only a handful of sufferers – nevertheless it caught our consideration due to the physician concerned, Dr. Ali Rezai, who 60 Minutes first met 20 years in the past. Dr. Rezai is a neuroscience pioneer who has developed therapies for Parkinson’s illness and different mind issues. Over the final yr we adopted this grasp of the thoughts as he tried to delay the development of Alzheimer’s disease and its worst signs utilizing ultrasound. We noticed a cutting-edge method to mind surgical procedure…with no slicing.

Dr. Ali Rezai: If we will, we shouldn’t be doing mind surgical procedure.

Sharyn Alfonsi: You’re a mind surgeon!

Dr. Ali Rezai: I’m, however I needs to be out of a job, as a result of mind surgical procedure, it is slicing the pores and skin, opening the cranium. It could be barbaric.

It appeared like a scene from a sci-fi film. A halo wrapped affected person, pushed right into a tube…as a group of medical doctors manipulate his mind from the opposite facet of the glass. 

Dr. Ali Rezai allowed us to witness his revolutionary try to make use of ultrasound to decelerate the cognitive decline in three sufferers identified with Alzheimer’s illness. It’s by no means been carried out earlier than.

Dr. Ali Rezai: There’s no miracle cures right here. It’s advancing drugs with calculated dangers and pushing the frontiers.

Dr. Rezai and his group are centered on these crimson patches within the affected person’s mind scans. The crimson signifies the densest beta-amyloid protein. That gummy protein is believed to play a serious position in Alzheimer’s by disrupting communication between mind cells.

Dr. Ali Rezai: In folks with Alzheimer’s it accumulates a lot quicker. And over time, these protein aggregates, we name them plaques. Like plaques within the arteries, they carry on accumulating and impacting perform.

There are two FDA authorized medication available on the market …that may assist break up that mind plaque. Aducanumab was authorized in 2021…adopted by lecanemab final yr. Both are given intravenously… however they work slowly.

Dr. Ali Rezai: Typically, you go into the clinic, and also you get an IV, and you’ve got the antibody infusion over one to 2 hours. And it’s a must to do it as soon as a month or twice a month for 18 months and longer. And throughout these 12 to 18 months, the mind is continuous to progress. Alzheimer’s is just not going away.

It takes so lengthy as a result of the medication have a tough time getting by way of one thing known as the blood mind barrier. This tight filter of cells line the blood vessels to maintain toxins from leaking into the mind…nevertheless it additionally prevents virtually the entire remedy from getting in too.

Dr. Rezai thought he might clear up that drawback with ultrasound – the identical expertise that is been used for 70 years to provide medical doctors a view of organs and fetal improvement.

He selected ultrasound as a result of it simply penetrates the cranium and could be centered — like daylight by way of a magnifying glass – to assist open the blood mind barrier and permit the medication to hurry in.

Dr. Ali Rezai: This means we’re getting the payload– the therapeutic payload precisely to the world it must go together with a excessive penetration. But we gotta watch out as a result of we wanna be secure about this. You do not wanna ship an excessive amount of. Don’t wanna open the blood-brain barrier an excessive amount of…

Sharyn Alfonsi: Because if you happen to open it an excessive amount of, what might happen–

Dr. Ali Rezai: You can get bleeding within the mind, you may get swelling within the mind, you may get many different issues. So it’s a must to get it excellent.

We will present you precisely how that labored and the early ends in a minute…

But to know why one of many nation’s most completed mind surgeons is betting on ultrasound…

You have to return to 2002…when Dr. Rezai first caught our consideration in a narrative Morley Safer reported on treating Parkinson’s illness.

Dr. Rezai in 2002 Morley Safer piece: “Look up…show me your teeth…stick your tongue out…Very good.”

Dr. Rezai was among the many first to implant a pacemaker-type gadget within the mind which stopped uncontrollable actions suffered by Parkinson’s sufferers.

Dr. Rezai in 2002 Morley Safer piece: “It’s like traveling through a labyrinth as in the Greek myth and around every corner you have that bloodthirsty monster that can jump on you so you want to be careful to avoid these areas.”

That sort of implant surgical procedure is now routine for superior Parkinson’s. Dr. Rezai went on to jot down tons of of scientific papers, safe dozens of patents and current his Parkinson’s analysis to Congress and the White House. He might have gone to any massive metropolis analysis heart, however, true to type, he selected to strive one thing totally different and moved to Morgantown, West Virginia – the place he’s the chief director of the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.

Dr. Ali Rezai: It was a incredible transfer, as a result of we’re capable of obtain so many issues that might have been troublesome at different establishments. Sometimes within the larger establishments you might not be hungry as a lot for it, or you will have a thousand totally different agendas and priorities. Here we expect now we have a really nimble and agile group that may shortly get outcomes.

Like in 2019…that is video Dr. Rezai’s group took after they have been among the many first to make use of ultrasound to deal with tremors. For 15 years, Dan Wahl had been affected by important tremor- a neurological dysfunction. 

(2019 RNI video)

Dr. Ali Rezai: You OK?

Dan Wahl: I’m OK.

Dr. Ali Rezai: You received a hat on now. Alright superb.

Rezai’s group centered ultrasound into part of the mind known as the thalamus to destroy a pin-point sized patch of tissue medical doctors believed was chargeable for the tremors.

Dr. Ali Rezai: These are the 980 components converging proper there.

Wahl was awake through the process.

Doctor: Touch my finger along with your finger…

After two hours, the 71 yr outdated’s tremor was gone.

Dan Wahl: I’m nonetheless afraid I’m gonna drop it.

Doctor: You received it! 

Dan Wahl: I received it. 

Doctor: Really good. Do you wanna showcase?

Mrs. Wahl: Praise the lord. 

That success helped persuade Dr. Rezai that centered ultrasound might be tailored to sufferers with different mind issues…together with Alzheimer’s illness.

Dan Miller: My first signs that I seen have been that I used to be having hassle typing at work.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Did you suppose you had Alzheimer’s?

Dan Miller: No. I did not

Dan Miller is simply 61 years outdated. His spouse Kathy started noticing adjustments 4 years in the past.

Kathy Miller: He kinda hid it fairly nicely. And then I seen he was– having trouble– his garments can be backwards and people sorts of issues.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Just little issues.

Kathy Miller: Just little issues. Yes.

A scan of his mind…revealed what Dan had been hiding. The crimson spots indicated a construct up of these beta-amyloid proteins…the so-called mind plaque…a marker of Alzheimer’s. Dr. Rezai defined to Miller he could not treatment him of the illness, however he hoped to gradual its development.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Why participate within the trial if it isn’t a treatment?

Dan Miller: I’ve to clarify to you that I used to be on the level, you already know, like in Dante’s “Inferno” where– the place it says, “Abandon all hope, (laugh) you who enter here.” For me it was just– you already know, let’s do that. You know? What do I’ve to lose? 

Here’s the way it labored. Hours earlier than the process, Miller was given an IV therapy of aducanumab, a type of two new medication to scale back beta-amyloid plaque. 

Miller was then fitted with this million greenback helmet…much like the one the group used to deal with tremor sufferers. it directs almost a thousand beams of ultrasound power at a goal the scale of a pencil level.

Dr. Ali Rezai: Basically a affected person lies on the MRI desk and the top goes contained in the helmet and the affected person is immobilized with a halo or with a mouthpiece as a result of we do not need actions to trigger errors in our focusing on within the mind. 

Once inside, the MRI machine gave Dr. Rezai a 3D-view of the plaque he would goal in Dan Miller’s mind. The subsequent step was an IV answer that contained microscopic bubbles. When hit with ultrasound power, the bubbles pry open that blood mind barrier.

Dr. Ali Rezai: The bubbles begin vibrating.

Sharyn Alfonsi: They’re shifting.

Dr. Ali Rezai: They’re shifting. They begin increasing so you’ll be able to open the barrier quickly. Now it is open for twenty-four to 48 hours after which it reseals. So this offers you an incredible alternative for twenty-four to 48 hours with the barrier being open so now therapeutics can get contained in the mind.

You cannot hear ultrasound…that noise is a sign to inform Rezai’s group the ultrasound is doing its work. 

Dr. Ali Rezai: Each dot represents an space the place all of the waves– all of the ultrasound waves converge and open the blood-brain barrier.

Sharyn Alfonsi: So this is only one blast, if you’ll?

Dr. Ali Rezai: One blast getting there.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And you are hitting one level?

Dr. Ali Rezai: One level, after which it strikes to the subsequent one.

Even although sufferers have been awake, they instructed us they did not really feel a factor. It all took a few hours and so they went dwelling when it was over. The three sufferers got the therapies of ultrasound with infusion as soon as a month over six months. The outcome: beta-amyloid plaque focused with ultrasound have been diminished 50% greater than areas handled by infusion alone. Dr. Rezai shared the three sufferers’ mind scans with us.

Dr. Ali Rezai: And the crimson signifies extra density of beta amyloid plaques within the mind so you’ll be able to see as you deal with it with ultrasound…

Look intently on the areas outlined in white that have been focused with ultrasound and the drug.

Dr. Ali Rezai: You get discount.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Whoa.

Dr. Ali Rezai: Right there– 

Sharyn Alfonsi: That’s after?

Dr. Ali Rezai: That’s after. You can see the plaques are very considerably diminished by opening the blood-brain barrier simply in a single — space.

Dan Miller and the third affected person within the trial had bigger areas of their mind focused with ultrasound.

Dr. Ali Rezai: And that is his baseline after which you’ll be able to see right here after–

Sharyn Alfonsi: Wow.

Dr. Ali Rezai: –26 weeks, there is a very dramatic discount within the beta amyloid within the areas as outlined by this white mark.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And now we’re gonna have a look at affected person quantity three.

Dr. Ali Rezai: And this affected person underwent antibody infusion remedy plus ultrasound. You can see this area–

Sharyn Alfonsi: Wow.

Dr. Ali Rezai: –which is absolutely superb. The ultrasound opened the blood-brain barrier and the antibody went in quicker and cleaned out the plaques.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What was your response while you noticed this scan?

Dr. Ali Rezai: Uh. I imply, my jaw dropped. I’m like, “Whoa.” I– I used to be truly even within the clinic seeing sufferers and the PET scan technician known as and said– “Oh yeah, there’s a big change.” I’m like, “How do you know? We have to analyze it.” He was like, “No, you can see it on the screen.” So…

Sharyn Alfonsi: What did you suppose when Dr. Rezai shared the scans with you?

Dan Miller: It was surreal.

Sharyn Alfonsi: You can actually see it. You do not must be a physician to know what is going on on there.

Kathy Miller: No. Absolutely not.

Kathy Miller says she will see it in her husband, too…who slips up on occasion…however hasn’t slipped additional away.

Kathy Miller: He has hassle discovering issues. I’ll ship him into the kitchen to get somethin’ and he is like, “It’s not there.” And like, “Yes, it is. I can see it.” But he cannot see it. But if that is the worst, that is nothing.

Sharyn Alfonsi: You’ll take it.

Kathy Miller: I’ll take it.

Sharyn Alfonsi: You really feel hopeful in regards to the future?

Dan Miller: I do. Yes. I realized that what I wanted to do is settle for that the outdated Dan is gone and then– begin engaged on the brand new me, which has a future.

Dr. Rezai’s group instructed us there was no change within the potential of the three sufferers to do their each day actions because the ultrasound therapies led to July.

Now that Dr. Rezai has proven centered ultrasound can clear beta-amyloid plaques quicker, he has FDA approval to make use of ultrasound to attempt to restore mind cell perform misplaced to Alzheimer’s.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What’s the results of breaking apart all these plaques to the harm that is already been carried out to the mind?

Dr. Ali Rezai: We do not know if it is gonna reverse the harm to the mind, as a result of Alzheimer’s, the underlying trigger remains to be occurring. So now we have one other research that we’re with ultrasound. First, clear the plaques. Then ship ultrasound in a unique dose to see now if we will reverse it or enhance the mind extra for folks with Alzheimer’s.

The human mind comprises 100 billion neurons. That’s as many cells as there are stars throughout the milky means. Dr. Ali Rezai has spent 25 years exploring this frontier of medication. The surgical strategies and therapies he pioneered are in use all over the world. Dr. Rezai allowed us to see his newest analysis during the last yr on the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in Morgantown, West Virginia. It consists of revolutionary therapies for a mind illness suffered by 24 million Americans – habit. The outcomes to this point have been life altering for the folks we met as soon as trapped by medication.

Gerod Buckhalter: Looking again, I did not have an opportunity.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What do you imply you did not have an opportunity?

Gerod Buckhalter: I could not do something with out having that drug–um in my system.

Gerod Buckhalter is the son of a coal miner. At 6 foot 3, he was a highschool soccer standout…who dreamed of enjoying large receiver at Penn State…however after a shoulder harm, he received hooked on painkillers.

Gerod Buckhalter: The very first time that I– that I took that first tablet, um — I– I knew that I needed that feeling for the remainder of my life.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What did it really feel like?

Gerod Buckhalter: It’s simply pure euphoria.

He took us to the place he mentioned he typically went to purchase medication, together with heroin.

Gerod Buckhalter: Everybody in Morgantown is aware of to return right here. I used to be in all probability 17, 18 years outdated…you already know…only a child.

Buckhalter nonetheless appears like an athlete…it is exhausting to think about he was an addict for greater than 15 years. He instructed us he doesn’t keep in mind what number of occasions he overdosed and that he could not keep clear for greater than 4 days at a time.

Gerod Buckhalter: I did not know the place I used to be gonna sleep some nights. You know, my household did not need me round anymore. I just– I did so many issues to harm them that, you already know, it was simply an excessive amount of for them to take care of.

Four years in the past, a psychologist who’d labored with Buckhalter launched him to Dr. Ali Rezai, who was gearing as much as carry out a brand new sort of mind surgical procedure to deal with extreme habit.

Dr. Ali Rezai: Our protocol was those who have failed every part.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Once you have tried every part.

Dr. Ali Rezai: Everything. Residential packages, a number of failures, detox a number of occasions, outpatient, inpatient, a number of overdoses.

Gerod Buckhalter: I believe he categorized it as– end-stage drug consumer.

Sharyn Alfonsi: I imply, finish stage makes you suppose that that is the tip of your life.

Gerod Buckhalter: Correct. And listening to that on the age of 34 um, it – it was loopy.

Dr. Rezai thought he may be capable to adapt expertise he helped develop years earlier to deal with Parkinson’s illness to deal with folks with extreme habit.

Dr. Ali Rezai: We’ve been capable of map out with neuroscience imaging there is a particular a part of the mind that’s electrically and chemically malfunctioning that’s related to habit.

Sharyn Alfonsi: So it isn’t simply willpower. It’s what’s taking place within the mind.

Dr. Ali Rezai: It’s a mind illness, it is {an electrical} and chemical abnormality within the mind that happens over time with recurrent use of medication. And this may be any substance, alcohol, could be opioids, amphetamines, cocaine and so they all are involving the identical a part of the mind.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And so your thought was what with the implant?

Dr. Ali Rezai: Parkinson’s we implant that within the motion a part of the mind that’s electrically malfunctioning inflicting shaking. In this case, we’re going within the behavioral regulation, anxiousness, and craving elements of the mind.

Dr. Rezai has seen the affect of habit in his neighborhood. The drawback is so extreme in Morgantown…a merchandising machine dispenses the overdose antidote narcan totally free.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse agreed to help Dr. Rezai’s try to combat habit with a mind implant. In 2019, the FDA gave him a inexperienced mild to aim the groundbreaking surgical procedure.

That is Gerod Buckhalter. He agreed to be the primary habit affected person within the U.S. to get the implant. Dr. Rezai’s group interviewed him the day earlier than the surgical procedure.

Gerod Buckhalter (throughout Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute pre-surgery interview): “The best outcome possible would be just to cut the cravings out, make me feel a little bit better. If you know, if those couple of things happen you know…that’s all I could possibly ask for.”

Gerod Buckhalter: At that point I used to be so determined for a greater life that I used to be keen to do absolutely anything and I signed as much as do it.

Sharyn Alfonsi: I believe some folks may have a look at this and suppose, “An electronic implant in the brain sounds a little creepy.”

Dr. Ali Rezai: People perhaps 50 years in the past, they are saying “A implant in the heart sounds creepy.” Now it is, like, regular. Twenty-five years in the past, individuals are saying, “What are you doing? You’re putting an implant in the brain for Parkinson’s?” however now it is routine a part of normal of take care of superior Parkinson’s.

This is video from the seven-hour process. A surgical procedure so new…it did not have a reputation but. Dr. Rezai opened a nickel-sized gap in burkhalter’s cranium. then he directed a skinny wire with 4 electrodes deep inside.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Gerod was awake through the surgical procedure. Why was that needed?

Dr. Ali Rezai: To map the mind now we have tiny microphones the scale of a hair we put contained in the mind. And they are going slowly with micro-robots. They go at increments of a thousandth of a millimeter. Very gradual, we drive them into the mind, and we’re listening to the neurons speaking to one another. In habit, we need to discover the world within the reward heart, in order that confirms the place we’re within the mind. Once we hear, we are saying, “Okay, that’s the right sound,” then we put the ultimate therapeutic pacemaker.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What does it sound like?

Dr. Ali Rezai: Static electrical energy, which can be electrical energy to you however its music to my ears.

Music as a result of, Dr. Rezai says, it is a sign that he discovered the suitable spot within the mind for the implant. 

Once in place, the wire was linked to a tool positioned beneath the collarbone. 

The electrical pulses it sends to the mind are meant to suppress cravings. Buckhalter mentioned it was painless. Post surgical procedure, the system is adjusted remotely with a pill pc as wanted. 

Gerod Buckhalter: When they turned the– the unit on it was an instantaneous change.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What was the change?

Gerod Buckhalter: Just felt higher. You know, simply felt like I did previous to ever utilizing medication, however just a little bit higher. And it was at that time that I knew that I used to be gonna have a respectable shot at doing nicely.

In all – 4 sufferers with extreme drug habit had the implant surgical procedure. One had a minor relapse. Another dropped out of the trial utterly. But two have been drug free since their operations, together with Gerod Buckhalter, whose been clear for 4 years.

Sharyn Alfonsi: If you hadn’t met Doctor Rezai, if you happen to hadn’t gone by way of this implant, do you suppose you would be sitting right here speaking to me at the moment?

Gerod Buckhalter: You could also be speaking to my dad and mom you already know, those who have misplaced their– their family members to a drug overdose, however you would not be speaking to me. There’s– there is no doubt about that.

The surgical procedure was a hit however opening somebody’s cranium is all the time dangerous. Dr. Rezai thought he might attain extra sufferers shortly if he used ultrasound. He was already utilizing it to deal with different mind issues…and was satisfied centered ultrasound might goal the identical space of the mind because the implant.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Is this mind surgical procedure and not using a knife?

Dr. Ali Rezai: It is, certainly. So that is, there is no pores and skin slicing. There’s no opening the cranium. So it’s mind surgical procedure with out slicing the pores and skin, certainly.

Dr. Rezai defined how his group can be the primary to deal with addicts by aiming tons of of beams of ultrasound to a exact level deep contained in the mind.

Dr. Ali Rezai: So the world that we’re treating is the reward heart within the mind, which is the nucleus accumbens, which is true down on the base of this darkish space. And then we deliver– ultrasound waves to that particular a part of the mind, and we watch how acutely, on the desk your cravings and your anxiousness adjustments in response to ultrasound.

Sharyn Alfonsi: How is the ultrasound making a change right here?

Dr. Ali Rezai: Ultrasound power is altering {the electrical} and chemical milieu, or exercise, on this construction within the mind involving habit and cravings.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Just resetting them and giving them sort of a contemporary begin?

Dr. Ali Rezai: At this level, it looks as if the mind is being reset, or rebooting of the mind, and the cravings are much less, they’re managed, anxiousness is healthier. So now that permits them to work together with the therapist. It’s essential to know that this isn’t a treatment, however an augmentation of the remedy by lowering the cravings and anxiousness that is so overwhelming that the therapist has issue working with the affected person.

Last February, we watched Dr. Rezai use centered ultrasound to deal with Dave Martin who instructed us he has been surrounded by family and friends who use medication his entire life. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: When did you begin utilizing medication?

Dave Martin: When I used to be seven years outdated.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Seven?

Dave Martin: Yes. I did medication for 37 years.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What sort of medication have been you utilizing?

Dave Martin: Anything I might get my arms on.

Inside the MRI, Martin was proven these photographs of drug use to stoke his cravings. 

A simultaneous mind scan allowed Dr. Rezai and his group to instantly spot the world within the nucleus accumbens that was most lively.

90-watts of ultrasound power have been beamed at a goal the scale of a gumdrop.

Within minutes, we seen Martin’s foot – that had been anxiously bouncing – was nonetheless. And he instructed Rezai’s group that those self same photographs of medication he was proven earlier, have been now… not sparking the necessity for a repair.

Dave Martin: The day of the process, it was the very best day of my life. I did not expertise the identical impact as, like, the occasions earlier than —

Sharyn Alfonsi: You did not really feel like, “I need that.” I would like that —

Dave Martin: No. I did not really feel like I wanted the urge or the need to make use of wasn’t there anymore.

Dr. Ali Rezai: So inside 15 to twenty minutes of therapy, the craving and anxiousness melts away, and we’re seeing this sample in a number of situations. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: Then they will stroll away after this? There’s no–

Dr. Ali Rezai: They get off the desk and go dwelling.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And how lengthy does this whole process take?

Dr. Ali Rezai: One hour.

Sharyn Alfonsi: One hour. 

Dr. Ali Rezai: One hour.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Have you been round folks nonetheless utilizing medication?

Dave Martin: Yes, sure, sadly, I’ve. Um.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And what occurs?

Dave Martin: It did not even set off me. I used to make use of intraven– intravenously with needles and… It was a short while in the past not too far again however this one particular person was tryin’ to hit theirself. And they could not hit. And they requested me, “Can– can you hit me?”

Sharyn Alfonsi: So you truly put medication into this particular person?

Dave Martin: Yeah, I truly -stuck them, drew the blood again. You know, now earlier than once I drew blood again, it might, like, make– make me sweat ‘trigger I could not wait to hit myself. however this time it was identical to god I hope they do not OD and I kill them right here you already know. But I did not have any urges or need or something, so.

Dr. Rezai’s group instructed us Dave Martin did admit to taking one painkilling tablet at a celebration in December. Still — 10 of the 15 sufferers within the ultrasound scientific trials have remained utterly drug free.

Dr. Ali Rezai is making an attempt the identical ultrasound remedy on 45 extra habit sufferers and is already interested by increasing the usage of ultrasound to assist folks with different mind issues together with publish traumatic stress dysfunction and weight problems. 

Dr. Ali Rezai: This is severe enterprise, analysis that is by no means been carried out earlier than. We must study extra. We have to copy our findings.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Is there any danger at operating in the direction of one thing shortly?

Dr. Ali Rezai: There’s all the time danger, however you can not advance and make discoveries with out danger. But we have to push ahead and take the chance, as a result of folks with habit and Alzheimer’s is just not going away, it is right here so why wait ten, 20 years? Do it now.

Produced by Guy Campanile and Lucy Hatcher. Broadcast affiliate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Jorge J. García.