Transcranial Magneto-Acoustic Stimulation Protects Synaptic Rehabilitation from Amyloid-Beta Plaques via Regulation of Microglial Functions

作者：Chunlan Zhang, Ruxin Tan, Xiaoqing Zhou, Ruru Wang, Xin Wang, Ren Ma, Fangxuan Chu, Ying Li, Tao Yin, Zhipeng Liu · 发表于：International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3390/ijms25094651 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging、Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy Techniques、Vagus Nerve Stimulation Research

Transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation (TMAS), which is characterized by high spatiotemporal resolution and high penetrability, is a non-invasive neuromodulation technology based on the magnetic-acoustic coupling effect. To reveal the effects of TMAS treatment on amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaque and synaptic plasticity in Alzheimer's disease, we conducted a comparative analysis of TMAS and transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) based on acoustic effects in 5xFAD mice and BV2 microglia cells. We found that the TMAS-TUS treatment effectively reduced amyloid plaque loads and plaque-associated neurotoxicity. Additionally, TMAS-TUS treatment ameliorated impairments in long-term memory formation and long-term potentiation. Moreover, TMAS-TUS treatment stimulated microglial proliferation and migration while enhancing the phagocytosis and clearance of Aβ. In 5xFAD mice with induced microglial exhaustion, TMAS-TUS treatment-mediated Aβ plaque reduction, synaptic rehabilitation improvement, and the increase in phospho-AKT levels were diminished. Overall, our study highlights that stimulation of hippocampal microglia by TMAS treatment can induce anti-cognitive impairment effects via PI3K-AKT signaling, providing hope for the development of new strategies for an adjuvant therapy for Alzheimer's disease.