Researchers at the University of Queensland say they've developed a non-invasive Alzheimer's treatment technique using ultrasound technology. Scientists claim a blast of sonic waves is able to break up the brain plaques implicated in Alzheimer's disease and reverse memory loss.

The technique has yet to be tested on humans -- and probably won't be for some time -- but in a series of experiments on mice bred to develop Alzheimer's, regular ultrasound scans triggered the brain to clean up neurotoxic amyloids using immune cells called microglia.

"The ultrasound waves oscillate tremendously quickly, activating microglial cells that digest and remove the amyloid plaques that destroy brain synapses," explained Jurgen Gotz, director of the Clem Jones Center for Ageing Dementia Research, part of the Queensland Brain Institute.

"The word 'breakthrough' is often mis-used, but in this case I think this really does fundamentally change our understanding of how to treat this disease, and I foresee a great future for this approach," Gotz said.

Similar techniques have been used before in conjunction with drugs, as the sonic vibrations help sneak medical compounds across the blood-brain barrier. But the new study is the first to show that ultrasound alone may be beneficial for Alzheimer's patients.

Several weeks of the ultrasound treatment cleared the plaque buildup from 75 percent of the mice, without discernible damage to healthy brain tissue. Cleared mice were demonstrated improved performance on memory tests in a maze.

Gotz admits that human clinical trials are still at least two years away, and that's only if he and his colleagues can convince others the technique will work for humans. The mice used in the experiment featured significant plaque buildup, but still at levels the human equivalent of which may go ignored. Currently, most Alzheimer's diagnoses don't come until cognitive impairment is readily apparent.

"The bottom line is that there is a long way to go before this noninvasive technique could be translated into a practical treatment for Alzheimer's," Michael Wolfe, an Alzheimer's researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, told the Los Angeles Times.

There are some 50 million people worldwide currently diagnosed with dementia. Alzheimer's accounts for somewhere between 60 and 80 percent of dementia cases. By 2050, more than 135 million people will have been diagnosed with dementia.

Finding effective ways to diagnose and treat dementia is vital. But doing so without the cost of expensive drugs would be especially helpful.

The new ultrasound study was published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine.