Monitoring Alzheimer’s disease via ultraweak photon emission
Niloofar Sefati,
Tahereh Esmaeilpour,
Vahid Salari,
Asadollah Zarifkar,
Farzaneh Dehghani,
Mahdi Khorsand Ghaffari,
Hadi Zadeh-Haghighi,
Noémi Császár,
István Bókkon,
Serafim Rodrigues,
Daniel Oblak
Affiliations
Niloofar Sefati
Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Tahereh Esmaeilpour
Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Vahid Salari
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada; Quantum Alberta, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada; Corresponding author
Asadollah Zarifkar
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Farzaneh Dehghani
Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Histomorphometry and Stereology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Mahdi Khorsand Ghaffari
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Hadi Zadeh-Haghighi
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada; Quantum Alberta, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary AB T2N 1N4, Canada
Noémi Császár
Psychosomatic Outpatient Clinics, Budapest, Hungary
István Bókkon
Psychosomatic Outpatient Clinics, Budapest, Hungary; Vision Research Institute, Neuroscience and Consciousness Research Department, Lowell, MA, USA
Serafim Rodrigues
MCEN Team, Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain; IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Plaza Euskadi 5, 48009 Bilbao, Spain; Corresponding author
Daniel Oblak
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada; Quantum Alberta, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada; Corresponding author
Summary: In an innovative experiment, we detected ultraweak photon emission (UPE) from the hippocampus of male rat brains and found significant correlations between Alzheimer’s disease (AD), memory decline, oxidative stress, and UPE intensity. These findings may open up novel methods for screening, detecting, diagnosing, and classifying neurodegenerative diseases, particularly AD. The study suggests that UPE from the brain’s neural tissue can serve as a valuable indicator. It also proposes the development of a minimally invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) photonic chip for monitoring and diagnosing AD, offering high spatiotemporal resolution of brain activity. The study used a rodent model of sporadic AD, demonstrating that STZ-induced sAD resulted in increased hippocampal UPE, which was associated with oxidative stress. Treatment with donepezil reduced UPE and improved oxidative stress. These findings support the potential utility of UPE as a screening and diagnostic tool for AD and other neurodegenerative diseases.
