SAHMRI plan to fight memory loss and dementia via a “brain clean”

Adelaide researchers are launching a revolutionary project aimed at cleaning a person’s brain in a bid to fight dementia.

Ambitious plans are underway to clean the brain in the hope of eventually fighting dementia and memory loss.

Under the plan, being hatched at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), scientists hope to devise ways to check how well a patient’s brain is cleaning itself, and help out when it is not doing a good enough job.

The project is at the laboratory stage with human trials well off into the future depending on how the work progresses.

However, the hope is a clean brain will help with memory while fighting the onset of dementia.

SAHMRI neuroscientist Dr Tim Sargeant has teamed with Dr Ed Robins from SAHMRI’s Molecular Imaging and Therapy Research Unit (MITRU) to develop a brain scan capable of assessing how well a brain is cleaning itself.

SAHMRI neuroscientist Dr Tim Sargeant and Dr Ed Robins from SAHMRI’s Molecular Imaging and Therapy Research Unit. Picture supplied by SAHMRI.

The proposed PET scan will use special molecules, labelled with radioactive isotopes, to track how well the brain can keep itself clean and healthy through the process of removing and recycling its waste.

By identifying areas where the brain struggles to keep itself clean, the team hopes to intervene before serious damage occurs.

Studies show a clear association between declining memory function and the build-up of sticky plaques in the brain, called beta-amyloid, strongly linked to dementia.

Dr Sargeant said researchers suspect brains that amass this plaque over time may also have reduced self-cleaning capacity.

“We’re aiming to catch the signs of sluggish brain-cleaning in individuals around the age of 50 or 60, well before the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms in most people,” he said.

“This new scan will allow us to visualise a living brain and watch how effectively it’s recycling material in real time.

“We’re using unique radioactive tracers to reveal how effectively the stomach of the cell, known as the lysosome, is working; if it’s not, we know that’s a forerunner to dementia.”

Radioisotopes needed to fuel the scans are manufactured by MITRU using the state’s only cyclotron, a radioactive particle accelerator housed underground at SAHMRI.

MITRU supplies radiopharmaceuticals daily to hospitals and imaging centres around Australia for patient diagnosis and treatment.

The unit also specialises in making PET imaging tracers that bind to target cells in the body and emit radiation picked up on a scanner.

Dr Robins said: “I’m optimistic this project could act as the catalyst to launch a whole new era of collaboration at SAHMRI.

“Imaging is an exciting technology because it takes out a lot of the guess work, by allowing scientists to see with their own eyes if they’ve hit the target or not.

“Without imaging, a researcher can get all the way up to the trial stage before realising they’re at a dead end.”

In 2020, Dr Sargeant’s team created the world’s first human blood test to measure autophagy – a measure of how well cells can clean themselves – and provide clues to quantify how healthily the body is ageing.

The three-year NHMRC-funded study will begin later this year.