Innovating Alzheimer’s treatment with radio frequencies

Alzheimer’s Disease is currently on the rise globally, with 57 million people living with dementia in 2019 – a number expected to triple by 2050.

While two new drugs – lecanemab and donanemab – have recently been approved for the treatment of the condition in the US and the UK, there is a desperate need for innovative new therapies.

One such innovative approach is the use of Transcranial Electromagnetic Treatment (TEMT), which works by modulating brain activity through electromagnetic pulses. It is thought that the pulses are able to impact plaque buildup in the brain that is associated with the development of Alzheimer’s.

One company, NeuroEM Therapeutics, is taking this treatment one step further, by harnessing TEMT and combining the technology with radio frequencies.

The company is part of StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot Community, a 2024 initiative that aims to help Alzheimer’s innovators to commercialise and scale their ideas.

Chuck Papageorgiou, CEO of NeuroEM Therapeutics, tells us more.

What is the current state of care for Alzheimer’s disease?

With no effective prevention or treatment, Alzheimer’s disease can seem like a fate worse than death to those who receive this devastating diagnosis and to their families and caregivers.

There are just two FDA-approved drugs currently on the market to treat the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, but they can only temporarily slow the rate of cognitive decline. However, a wave of innovation is bringing new hope to the millions living with Alzheimer’s disease.

How is Alzheimer’s treatment changing?

That is changing, thanks to the efforts of companies like NeuroEM Therapeutics and other members of StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot Community, which seeks to accelerate innovation around Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias by carefully curating the expertise and innovation from companies that span the full spectrum of Alzheimer’s care.

While new drugs tend to get the most attention, there is a quiet but powerful wave of innovation underway with treatments that are safe, effective, and less expensive. These are non-invasive approaches that use novel techniques like electrical stimulation, light therapy, and radio waves.

Can you tell us more about Transcranial Electromagnetic Treatment with Radio Frequencies (TEMT-RF)?

Our company’s proprietary Transcranial Electromagnetic Treatment leverages Radio Frequencies (TEMT-RF) technologies.

The science behind NeuroEM’s proprietary TEMT-RF was discovered purely by accident by a team of researchers at the University of South Florida, led by one of the pioneers of Alzheimer’s Research, Dr. Gary Arendash, who were trying to determine if cell phones cause cancer.

What they discovered instead was that a group of mice that already had Alzheimer’s disease and received certain radio frequencies not only did not get brain cancer, but they actually began performing better at cognitive tests.

No one knows yet why they work the way they do, but essentially the same safe radio frequencies used by most cell phones untangle proteins in the brain to allow the body’s glymphatic system – the brain’s detox system – to flush the proteins out of the brain. It is this tangling and clumping of these proteins that leads to the loss of cognition in Alzheimer’s patients.

Can you tell us about your plans for NeuroEM’s TEMT-RF?

After initial clinical trials confirmed the results, we began working to bring to market a commercial version of our device; a cap that patients wear at home for an hour twice daily that uses radio frequencies to deliver a transcranial electromagnetic treatment that improves key physical factors in the brain at the root of cognitive decline.

The Western Institutional Review Board labelled the cap’s risk level as “non-significant,” thereby “accelerating the development of cutting-edge medical devices that will prevent, diagnose, and/or treat disorders involving the nervous system or consequences of such a disease or injury.”

It was also the first to receive Breakthrough Device status from the FDA to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Early results indicate it is also effective.

One patient, Marty, enrolled in NeuroEM’s clinical trial when she was in her mid 80s and already living with Alzheimer’s. She recently celebrated her 90th birthday and is scoring in the normal range for cognitive behaviour for her age.

Chuck Papageorgiou is CEO of NeuroEM Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology research company focused on commercialising its proprietary Transcranial Electromagnetic Treatment leveraging Radio Frequencies (TEMT-RF) technologies against Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline.