The gamma treatment also shows potential for treating patients living with neurological diseases
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have shown that a non-invasive treatment called gamma treatment could protect cancer patients from “chemo brain,” memory impairment and other cognitive effects of chemotherapy.
Chemo brain is a term used to describe thinking and memory problems that a patient may experience before, during or after cancer treatment.
Originally developed to treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the treatment works to stimulate gamma-frequency brain waves, involving exposure to light and sound with a frequency of 40 hertz.
In the new study, MIT researchers used mouse models, which evaluated a chemotherapy drug known as cisplatin, often used to treat testicular and ovarian cancers, for five days and then took it off for five days and repeated it.
One group received chemotherapy only, while another group was also given 40-hertz light and sound therapy every day.
After three weeks, mice that received cisplatin showed the expected effects of chemotherapy, such as brain volume shrinkage, DNA damage, demyelination and inflammation, in addition to reduced populations of oligodendrocytes, the brain cells that produce myelin.
In mice that received gamma therapy along with cisplatin, significant reductions in symptoms were shown and had beneficial effects on behaviour, performing better on tests designed to measure memory and executive function.
Researchers then analysed the gene expression changes that occurred in mice that received the gamma treatment using single-cell RNA sequencing and found that the inflammation-linked genes and genes that trigger cell death were suppressed, particularly in oligodendrocytes, while beneficial effects could still be seen in mice that received the gamma treatment along with cisplatin for up to four months later.
Additionally, the gamma treatment improved signs of chemo brain in mice that received a different type of chemotherapy drug, methotrexate, which is used to treat cancers including lung and breast.
Researchers now plan on testing this approach in AD as well as other neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

https://pharmas.com/news/mit-study-reveals-non-invasive-treatment-holds-promise-for-treating-chemo-brain/