A Chinese neurologist has drawn national attention after stumbling upon a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease while treating his own mother for an unrelated neurological condition.

On Jan. 21, domestic lifestyle platform Yi Tiao published an interview with Sun Bomin, director of the Center for Functional Neurosurgery at Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai, who claimed his mother showed cognitive improvement after undergoing high-intensity focused ultrasound (FUS), a noninvasive technique that uses ultrasound waves to treat targeted tissue. 

The interview has since been viewed more than 100,000 times and sparked widespread discussion online.

Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease that accounts for around 70% of dementia diagnoses. China is home to nearly 17 million people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, according to the latest estimates. The disease is currently considered incurable, with available treatments focused on slowing progression rather than reversing it. 

Sun’s mother, now in her 90s, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s approximately eight years ago. Since then, she had gradually forgotten family members’ names, lost her sense of time, and showed little response, even to the deaths of close relatives. 

But in 2024, a month after undergoing FUS treatment for dystonia — a movement disorder — Sun said she began to show cognitive improvement, including the ability to subtract by sevens, a common task used in cognitive assessment.

Inspired by his mother’s improvement, and after receiving approval from the hospital’s ethics committee, the neurologist launched a clinical trial in 2025 to examine the treatment’s use in patients with Alzheimer’s. 

It marked Sun’s first research relating to the disease. He had previously studied brain-computer interfaces for treating severe depression, and the use of FUS in patients with anorexia nervosa. 

Seven moderate to severe Alzheimer’s patients are currently enrolled in the trial, which requires them to wear a helmet that emits high-energy ultrasound waves. The ultrasound, guided by real-time magnetic resonance imaging, passes through the scalp and skull to reach deep brain structures, where it induces vibrations in neural tissue.

Sun said the vibrations may reorganize disordered neural circuits, potentially clearing abnormal protein deposits or reactivating dormant neural pathways. He noted, however, that “What exactly is being changed is still unknown.”

Varying degrees of improvement have been observed among the patients, with some reportedly showing marked results, while others have relapsed. 

One of the participants, who before treatment suffered from severe memory loss and was unable to care for herself, reportedly regained the ability to perform household tasks, independently search for phone contacts and make calls, and pick up old hobbies such as singing.

How long such effects may last, whether repeated treatments are required, and what might constitute optimal treatment intervals remain open questions, Sun said. He has yet to publish his findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Internationally, ultrasound research into Alzheimer’s has largely focused on low-intensity ultrasound, typically used to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier and improve the delivery of drugs to the brain. In contrast, Sun’s technique uses ultrasound as a standalone therapy.

In recent years, Chinese researchers have also explored surgical approaches to treat Alzheimer’s, such as deep cervical lymphatic-venous anastomosis, which was performed more than 1,400 times nationwide prior to the National Health Commission suspending the surgery last July, citing the need for further clinical evidence of its safety and effectiveness.

Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.

(Header image: imageBROKER/Berit Kessler/Getty Creative/VCG)