ROCHESTER, N.Y. — There is groundbreaking research coming out of the University of Rochester that could be a game changer in the battle against Alzheimer’s disease and other older age-related neurological diseases.

“I’m excited about it. It’s a long way from [Food and Drug Administration] approval,” said University of Rochester professor of mechanical engineering Douglas Kelley. “Alzheimer’s is a hard nut to crack and there aren’t many drugs approved for doing anything with Alzheimer’s.”

Kelley says these diseases can be seen as harmful waste in the brain. They found that the brain’s ability to remove that toxic build up slows with age.

“We studied how the dirty fluid laden with waste gets out of the skull, and, in particular, a lot of it gets out of the skull along the lymph vessels and run down the neck,” said Kelley. 

Researchers focused on the lymph vessels and the exit of this dirty waste from the brain.

“We developed new image processing techniques on the engineering side that allowed us to measure really precisely how fast the flows were in lymph vessels in the neck, and also how vigorously the vessels were pulsing in order to pump fluid along and pull at that waste laden fluid out of the skull,” said Kelley.

It turns out the team found that the drug used to induce labor, called prostaglandin F2α, may also revive the lymphangions by aiding to smooth muscle contraction.

“It makes the vessels pump more again and you can get back basically all of the flow that’s lost with age,” said Kelley. 

It’s a research team that is now on the right track with new data to build on.

“There aren’t many ways to improve this circulation of fluid and to get rid of the waste. This is a new one,” said Kelley. “This is a new one that nobody’s put out.”

The testing to this point has been done on mice.

More time, testing and trials are needed, but the data to date offers new hope in the fight against these diseases that affect so many.