A notable characteristic of several well-known neurodegenerative diseases—such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s—is the formation of harmful plaques that contain aggregates of amyloid proteins, also known as fibrils. Unfortunately, even after decades of research, getting rid of these plaques has remained a herculean challenge, so treatments for these patients have not been very effective.

Now, scientists are revealing the results from experiments that show how resonance with an infrared laser, when it is tuned to a specific frequency, actually causes amyloid fibrils to disintegrate from the inside out.

Their findings open doors to new therapeutic possibilities for amyloid plaque-related brain diseases that have thus far been incurable.

In recent years, instead of going down the chemical route using drugs, some scientists have turned to alternative approaches, such as ultrasound, to destroy amyloid fibrils and halt the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.