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40 Hz Masked Light: A new venture to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease

BRIGHT

Start Date
End Date
Total Funding
€ 71 429
Funding Programme
European Countries Involved

While Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a global pandemic, it has been estimated that a five-year delay in the disease onset could reduce the disease prevalence – and its costs – by up to 33% over the next decades, representing potential savings over €100bn in EU alone. However, there are still significant roadblocks ahead as current drugs do not untap sizeable improvements in AD patients. This is primarily due to the challenge of minimizing the impact of irreversible brain damage in later dementia stages, which accentuates the need for early intervention. However, recent evidence shows that non-invasive flashing (stroboscopic) light at the appropriate frequency (40 Hz) promotes clearance of beta-amyloid – whose accumulation is believe to be one of the key triggers to the neurodegenerative cascade leading to dementia states. Instead of using fadigue-inducing stroboscopic flashing light (i.e. on-off), the founding members of OptoCeutics have devised a unique, patent-protected method to stimulate the human visual receptors and processing cortex through alternating white light composed of different wavelengths. The two variants of the white light are formed by different combinations of coloured LEDs. When flickering between the two LED sets, the colours fusion together and appear as one, resulting in approximately the same white colour, avoiding experiencing light flashing, but the brain is capturing the blue component flashing with 40 Hz – thus still promoting neuro-protective beta-amyloid clearance.OptoCeutics will leverage from BRIGHT as a vital stepping stone to prepare the company’s business strategy, serving also to significantly de-risk its route-to-market by enabling to liaise with major industrial and clinical players to define both the optimal productization and maturation of Optoceutics core technology, as well as the setup for its full-scale demonstration and certification, prior market roll-out.

Project partners

Optoceutics Aps

 
Acknowledgement
Alzheimer Europe's database on research projects was developed as part of the 2020 Work Plan which received funding under an operating grant from the European Union’s Health Programme (2014–2020).