NeuroSensor — Using nanotechnology to treat Alzheimer's

8 min readAug 14, 2021

It is estimated that there are approximately 44 million people worldwide living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related form of dementia.

Now, what if I told you that there is a commodity to significantly make that number plummet?

Before diving deep into the solution, let’s fully comprehend the problem at hand: Alzheimer’s.

What is Alzheimer’s and what causes it?

Alzheimer’s is a neurological progressive disease that affects one’s memory, thinking, and behavior. This disease can negatively impact one’s daily life, as these functions are deemed to be crucial. Despite this, there is no cure for this detrimental disease.

Initially, on the surface of a neuron, there is a protein called Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP); the APP is cut by enzymes and free a protein called beta-amyloids. Beta-amyloids are usually eliminated by a healthy body, but when they accumulate in the brain, they form sticky plaques (amyloid plaques) in the brain’s neurons and their connections (synapses). These plaque buildups hinder the signals between cells and is one factor that causes neurons to die. Alongside this perilous plaque, there is another protein called tau that effects the neurons. Typically, tau is beneficial to the brain; however, when tau unusually alters, it forms tangles (neurofibrillary tangles) in neurons.

The neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques present in a brain with Alzheimer’s compared to a normal brain

Both beta-amyloids and tau breaks the connections between neurons, which causes the Alzheimer’s to start developing in the brain. Due to the lack of transmissions from the neurons to the rest of the body, the neurons in the brain die and the brain deteriorates. Subsequently, as more and more neurons die, the brain loses more and more functionality, starting with memory loss and a loss of cognitive ability, and then progressing to the loss of motor skills and bodily functions.

There needs to be a way to prevent the plaque and tangles in the brain because it can lead to much more problems in one’s body.

Some risk factors of Alzheimer’s can include age, family history, genetics, head injury, and heart conditions (like diabetes and high blood pressure). A large problem with these risk factors are that they are very common, making people more vulnerable to this disease. This further increases the demand of a cure for Alzheimer’s.

What are the stages of Alzheimer’s disease?

Although, I gave you a glance at what happens in the brain when Alzheimer’s forms, let’s specifically look at its progressive stages.

The early stage:

The first and early stage of Alzheimer’s consists of a minor change in one’s ability to carry out common functions. This change starts in the region of the brain that controls memory, which is the hippocampus. Although a patient might be able to function independently, they will most likely confront many memory lapses; a memory lapse is a period of time that a person forgets things that they should be able to remember.

Some of the common difficulties confronted during a memory lapse are:

Difficulty remembering and coming up with names and words
Losing and/or misplacing objects
Difficulty carrying out tasks in social and work settings

The middle stage:

Alzheimer’s middle stage is the usually the longest stage since it can last for numerous years; as the years pass, the patient’s condition worsens and they become more dependent on others for care.

Since the symptoms become more accentuated, it can be easier to identify this disease. Mainly, the patient becomes more moody and forgets information about themselves, their surroundings, the time, and events. Furthermore, their sleep patterns and behavior can significantly alter due to the damage in the brain’s neurons. However, these symptoms usually depend on the patient at hand.

The last stage:

In the last stage of Alzheimer's, the symptoms become severe and laborious for patients to respond to others and the environment. The patient might be able to speak some words or phrases despite the damage to their cognitive skills and memory. Another major effect that occurs is the loss of movement; the patient usually has trouble doing very simple tasks, like walking, sitting, and even swallowing. This effect is caused by the neurons not being able to transmit signals to control these functions. The loss of neurons also affects the patient’s immune system, making them more susceptible to certain diseases, especially pneumonia.

According to the Mayo Clinic Website, the process of Alzheimer’s begins years before the first symptoms. This essentially states that to solve this problem, we have to detect Alzheimer’s early and prevent it from getting worse.

My thought process after researching about Alzheimer’s:

After researching about Alzheimer’s and its root cause, I was flabbergasted about the intensity of the disease and the fact that there is no cure/treatment for it to date. I was enraged by the fact that over 40 million people are struggling with this disease and even more are affected by it through family and friends.

I knew that I had to try and solve this problem, but HOW?

In my mind, I had this mindset that I wanted to make a change; I wanted to solve this problem and improve the quality of life of those affected by it. This drove me to have this anomaly feeling where my gears were turning and I had a jolt of excitement that I might actually solve a large problem.

Initially, I broke down what the cure/treatment would have to consist of:

Firstly, I believe that we would need to detect the disease at an early stage; as I have mentioned earlier, the process of Alzheimer’s begins years before the first symptoms. Thus, if we can diagnose Alzheimer’s as early as possible, it can be easier to treat it.

Once reaching to this point, I hit a roadblock because there is no cure or treatment for this harmful disease. Therefore, even if we diagnose it, we won’t have much to do unless we find a way to stop the patient’s condition from deteriorating. This leads me into the second action, which is to find a prevention for dying neurons. Neurons initially die due to plaque and tangles forming in the brain, which breaks the connections inside and affects memory. This loss of memory leads to brain’s immune system becoming weaker and enables the plaque and tangles to disperse. Consequently, the solution would be to form connections in the brain and keep the neurons “engaged” to fight these dangerous proteins.

After pondering upon these pieces of action, I came up with my offered solution, which I construed as something that’s realistic and has the potential to cure Alzheimer’s.

My offered solution (nanosensors and a NanoUSB):

Nanosensors: To detect Alzheimer’s early in the brain, we would inject nanosensors into the user’s brain at least when they are middle-aged (25 to 64 years old). There are numerous reasons for this. Firstly, the brain is fully developed around the age of 25, which proves as an effective stage to insert the nanosensors. Furthermore, 25 should be the minimum age for this injection because studies have found evidence of plaque buildup and tangles in the brains of people around that age.
Nevertheless, the most susceptible group to Alzheimer’s is seniors (above 65); since we want to detect Alzheimer’s early, the injection would be most effective below the age of 65. Consequently, the customers for this commodity would be middle-aged.
However, like almost every solution, there are going to be some exceptions. In this case, seniors can get injected with the nanosensors too and detect the disease early, but it might not detect it at the earliest stage.
Nanosensors are very tiny sensors that measure physical quantities and convert information into signals that can be analyzed. The nanosensors’ role in the brain would be to detect the clumps of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles using their non-toxic receptors; they would be modified to conduct monthly tests in the brain. If the nanosensors detect these perilous proteins in the brain during the test, they can notify the user through their phone.

This python code briefly portrays the role that the nanosensors would execute when trying to detect clumps of beta-amyloids and tangles of tau in the user’s brain. It inputs the brain’s composition to check if there are any of these proteins present; subsequently, it utilizes this information and prints out the result with the month associated for it

NanoUSB: In addition to the nanosensors being injected, the NanoUSB (nanotechnology USB) would be inserted near the hippocampus in a way that enables the user’s memories to pass through this NanoUSB. Thus, as time goes on, their memories in the hippocampus will be “transferred” to the NanoUSB. My theory is that, when the nanosensors detect the proteins in the brain and it turns out that the user is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the NanoUSB will get into the picture. It will consistently flow their memories from the NanoUSB to the hippocampus. Consequently, their memories will keep the neurons engaged and help to fight the neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques present in a brain.
Analogous to the nanosensors, the NanoUSB should be inserted into the user’s brain when they are middle-aged (25 to 64 years old) for the same reasons. An important thing to note is that, the NanoUSB will first transfer all the memories present from the hippocampus; thus, the memories engaging the neurons will be present + future memories that are stored in the NanoUSB.

This concept might be quite intricate to wrap your head around; thus, think of the movie “Inside out”, where the main character’s memories were stored in the a certain place and they could be used whenever needed. In this movie, every time a new memory is formed, it transfers to a storage location; in addition, these memories are easily accessible, just like memories in the hippocampus normally are. However, one major difference in this example is the fact that memories in the NanoUSB never “die out/fade away” because they need to replenish the neurons.

This is the memory storage location in Inside Out, which is analogous to the role of a NanoUSB

Based on this solution, I decided to form a startup to treat Alzheimer’s using nanotechnology called NeuroSensor. Furthermore, I created a Youtube video, which is the 3-minute pitch I presented to a group of judges at my entrepreneur and technology camp:

https://youtu.be/P5YSMyq5PTs

Next steps before launching the startup:

Before launching this startup and recruiting a team to work on this project, I need to consider some of the policies that would be implemented for the nanosensors and NanoUSB so it can be inserted in the most efficient and optimal manner. Furthermore, I will need to formulate a way to communicate with the user about their monthly checkups (like maybe using an app).

To ensure that the nanosensors and NanoUSB would carry out their role, I will need to research more in-depth about the logistics of these products, where they will be inserted, and how to make them as secure for the brain as possible.