Overview
Focused ultrasound is a rapidly evolving, noninvasive therapeutic technology that is improving the quality and longevity of life and decreasing the cost of care for millions of patients with a variety of serious medical disorders. It offers a disruptive, game changing alternative or complement to surgery, radiation therapy, drug delivery, and cancer immunotherapy. This novel technology precisely focuses beams of ultrasound energy on targets deep in the body without affecting surrounding normal tissue. Where the beams converge, the ultrasound can produce a variety of therapeutic effects without incisions or radiation.
For Alzheimer’s disease, focused ultrasound temporarily opens the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a naturally occurring barrier of tightly aligned cells along blood vessels that normally inhibits the diffusion of medications and immune cells into the brain.
Benefits
Currently, there is no cure or effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Potentially promising drug and antibody therapies have proven ineffective due to their inability to cross the BBB and enter the brain
Advantages:
- Noninvasive – no incisions, no risk of infection or bleeding, less pain, and rapid recovery
- Image-guided – minimal damage to surrounding tissue
- Safe, temporary, and repetitive opening of the BBB – enhancing the delivery of therapeutics and immune cells directly to the brain target site
Mechanisms of Action
Focused ultrasound delivers a variety of effects on tissue, and the following mechanisms are currently in use or under investigation for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Blood-Brain Barrier Opening: increased diffusion of therapeutics and immune cells to targeted brain tissue
- Local release of carrier-mediated payload: locally activating encapsulated therapies
- Enhanced immunotherapeutic delivery and activation: increases tumor exposure to immunotherapies
- Increased immune cell infiltration: promoting migration of immune cells into target tissue
- Excitatory/Inhibitory modulation of neuronal activity and nerve fibers: altering neuronal firing and circuitry
- Stem cell homing: guiding stem cells to targeted tissue, supporting repair and regeneration
- Glymphatic stimulation: enhancing the function of the brain’s waste-clearing system
Regulatory Authorizations
Europe, CE Marking (Includes all countries in the EU, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein): NEUROLITH by Storz Medical
Clinical Trials
The following is a curated list of clinical trials exploring the use of focused ultrasound to address Alzheimer’s disease.
- Effects of Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation (TUS) on Neurological and Cognitive Outcomes in Neurodegenerative Diseases (NDD-01)
This trial in California is investigating whether transcranial ultrasound stimulation improves neurologic and cognitive outcomes in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. - Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (LIFU) Neuromodulation
Researchers in West Virginia are using low-intensity focused ultrasound neuromodulation in the treatment of patients with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease. - Neuclare Device for Temporary Improvement of Executive Function in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease
This trial is taking place in South Korea and is treating patients with mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer’s disease. - ExAblate Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) Disruption for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
This trial at sites in Florida, New York, Ohio, Texas, West Virginia is opening the BBB with MR-guided focused ultrasound in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. - Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Alzheimer’s Disease (LIFUP-MCIAD)
Researchers in Los Angeles are using low-intensity focused ultrasound for early cognitive disability or Alzheimer’s disease.
The following clinical trials have completed enrolling patients, and results are expected soon.
- Ultrasonic Neuromodulation for Treatment of Cognitive Impairment
- Safety and Feasibility of Exablate Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption for Mild Cognitive Impairment or Mild Alzheimer’s Disease Undergoing Standard of Care Monoclonal Antibody (mAb) Therapy
- A Pivotal Study of LIPUS-Brain in Patients With Early Alzheimer’s Disease
The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click here, it will take you to the latest information available from https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/.
Preclinical Laboratory Studies
The following studies are partially or fully funded by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.
- Development of a transcranial focused ultrasound system for the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) transgenic pig to open blood brain barrier for stem cell therapy (Jeju National University)
- Enhancing Neurogenesis by Focused Ultrasound-mediated Plasmid Delivery (University of Virginia)
- Focused Ultrasound-Enhanced Systemic Delivery of Lipid Nanoparticles for BrainWide Gene Therapy in Alzheimer’s Disease (Columbia University)
- Focused Ultrasound-Mediated Microglial Activation to Promote Amyloid Beta Clearance in Alzheimer’s Disease (University College London)
- In Vivo PET imaging of ultrasound-assisted therapies in Alzheimer’s Disease (Stanford University)
- Promoting oligodendrogenesis with ultrasound for Alzheimer’s disease: A noninvasive, non-pharmacological regenerative strategy (Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre)
- Sonogenetics-enabled spatial and temporal expression of transcription factors for direct programming of human stem cells (Penn State University)
Manufacturers
The following manufacturers are active in the field of focused ultrasound and its applications for Alzheimer’s disease.
- Acoustiic, Inc. | Bellevue, WA, United States | www.acoustiic.com
- BrainSonix Corp. | Sherman Oaks, CA, United States | www.brainsonix.com
- Carthera | Paris, France | www.carthera.eu
- Ceretas Pty., Ltd. | Brisbane, Australia | www.ceretas.com.au
- Curapulse Co., Ltd | Busan, South Korea | www.cura-pulse.com
- Deepson Bio, Ltd. | Chuncheon-si, South Korea | www.deepsonbio.com
- Delsona Therapeutics, Inc. | New York, NY, United States | www.delsona.com
- Grey Matter Neurosciences | Toronto, ON, Canada | www.greymatterneurosciences.com
- MBInsight Systems | Miaoli County, Taiwan
- Microvascular Therapeutics, LLC | Tucson, AZ, United States | www.mvtpharma.com
- Neumous, Inc. | Cheongju-si, South Korea | www.neumous.com
- Neurosona Co., Ltd. | Seoul, South Korea | www.neurosona.com
- Sanmai Technologies, PBC | Los Altos, CA, United States | www.sanmai.tech
- Sound Wave Innovation Co., Ltd. | Tokyo, Japan | www.sw-innovation.com
- Storz Medical, AG | Tägerwilen, Switzerland | www.storzmedical.com
- Zhongke Green Valley Medical Technology Co., Ltd. | Shenzhen, China | en.gvbraintech.com
Media & Videos
A Mother’s Mind Appears Restored: Might Ultrasound Be a Cure For Alzheimer’s?
South China Morning Post – January 23, 2026
An Ultrasound Experiment Tackles a Giant Problem in Brain Medicine
New York Times – January 10, 2024
Breakthrough in Treating Alzheimer’s Using Targeted Drug Delivery Reported in New England Journal of Medicine
West Virginia University Medicine – January 3, 2024
Revolutionary New Ultrasound Procedure Could Delay Ageing and Memory Loss
BBC Science Focus – September 11, 2023
New Ultrasound Therapy Could Help Treat Alzheimer’s, Cancer
The Wall Street Journal – July 31, 2023
Key Publications
Suggested Reading: Focused Ultrasound: Transforming treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases. August 2022
Suggested Reading: Focused Ultrasound for Alzheimer’s Disease. January 2022.
Wang M, Zhang B, Guo R, Wang H, Wu D, Peng X, Guo H, Duan J, Yang W, Ren P, Zhang S. Restoration of autophagy-lysosomal function via transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation ameliorates β-amyloid pathology and cognitive deficits in an Alzheimer’s disease model. Ultrasonics. 2026 Mar 24;165:108075. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2026.108075. PMID: 41886893
Li F, Wu L, Feng X, Li Y, Fan H. Extracellular Vesicles in Alzheimer’s Disease: Dual Roles in Pathogenesis, Promising Avenues for Diagnosis and Therapy. Pharmaceutics. 2026 Jan 5;18(1):70. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics18010070. PMID: 41599177
Li X, Yan S, Li M, Liu R, Lu Q, Lu M, Bai F, Shen QD. Piezoelectric nanoparticle-driven rhythmic ultrasound neuromodulation for treatment of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Biomaterials. 2026 May;328:123905. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2025.123905. Epub 2025 Dec 11. PMID: 41389410
Lee S, Kum J, Kim K, Park TY, Ko H, Na DL, Kang SY, Kim H, Kim Y, Kim J. Clearance of amyloid plaque via focused ultrasonication in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Theranostics. 2026 Jan 1;16(5):2310-2323. doi: 10.7150/thno.122123. eCollection 2026. PMID: 41424842
Liu J, He J, Chen X, Wu D. Manipulation of glymphatic system by focused ultrasound: A promising treatment of neurological diseases. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2025 Oct 22:271678X251383857. doi: 10.1177/0271678X251383857. PMID: 41123223
Xiao H, Sreejith A, Howson I, Cruz AA, Key T, Iliff JJ, Aryal M. Focused Ultrasound Enhances Glymphatic Transport Robustly Across Anesthesia Levels. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2025 Oct;51(10):1701-1709. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2025.06.009. Epub 2025 Jul 12. PMID: 40653395
Liu J, He J, Chen X, Wu D. Manipulation of glymphatic system by focused ultrasound: A promising treatment of neurological diseases. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2025 Oct 22:271678X251383857. doi: 10.1177/0271678X251383857. PMID: 41123223
Xiao H, Sreejith A, Howson I, Cruz AA, Key T, Iliff JJ, Aryal M. Focused Ultrasound Enhances Glymphatic Transport Robustly Across Anesthesia Levels. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2025 Oct;51(10):1701-1709. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2025.06.009. Epub 2025 Jul 12. PMID: 40653395
Xie F, Ye Y, Hao J, Liu H, Richard SA, He S. Surgical advances in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease: A comprehensive review. J Alzheimers Dis. 2025 Aug 13:13872877251364397. doi: 10.1177/13872877251364397. PMID: 40801842
Xu H, Wang G, Jiang Z, Han Y, Zhao W, Zhang H, Liu H, Liu H, Li Z, Ji F. Ultrasmall Nanoparticles Mitigate Tau Hyperphosphorylation to Restore Synaptic Integrity and Boost Cognitive Function in Alzheimer’s Disease. Adv Healthc Mater. 2025 Aug;14(20):e2500941. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202500941. Epub 2025 May 16. PMID: 40376857
de Koning LA, Vazquez-Matias DA, Beaino W, Vugts DJ, van Dongen GAMS, van der Flier WM, Ries M, van Vuurden DG, Vijverberg EGB, van de Giessen E. Drug delivery strategies to cross the blood-brain barrier in Alzheimer’s disease: a comprehensive review on three promising strategies. J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2025 Aug;12(7):100204. doi: 10.1016/j.tjpad.2025.100204. Epub 2025 May 19. PMID: 40393907
Zheng K, Tsitsos FN, Batts AJ, Ji R, Nuriel T, Konofagou EE, Leong KW. Focused ultrasound-mediated APOE4 knockdown in mouse brain. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 Jul;21(7):e70464. doi: 10.1002/alz.70464. PMID: 40665471
Li W, Zha X, Zhang X, Dai H, Pu S, Yao X, Hui W, Xu R, Bao J, Yu J, Wei Y, Huang J, Guo N, Xu M, Zhao J, Cheng B, Luo Z. Enhanced Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of β-Amyloid through Focused Ultrasound-Mediated Gallium-68 Radiotracer Delivery across the Blood-Brain Barrier. ACS Chem Neurosci. 2025 Jul 28. doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.5c00476. PMID: 40720733
Click here for additional references from PubMed.