Researchers at Ohio State want to recruit 10 patients for the study, which began with the first surgery in October. The surgery is for patients with mild disease and aims to regulate abnormal activity in the brain.
"Our goal is to maybe slow down the disease and improve the symptoms in terms of being able to improve the patients' sense of independence and self-care or comfort [and] dignity," said Ali Rezai, a neurosurgeon and one of the leaders of the study. "Our goal is to improve the cognitive and behavioral functions and memories."
In deep brain stimulation, a small electrode is placed in a precise location in the brain, much like a pacemaker in the heart. A mild electrical current is delivered to stimulate that area of the brain, with the goal of interrupting abnormal activity.
While it was developed for movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and dystonia, DBS has also been used with some success in extreme cases of treatment-resistant depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.
The idea in Alzheimer's patients, Rezai said, is to overcome some of the deficits caused by the buildup of the protein plaques and tangles that characterize the disease.
"The Alzheimer's plaques gum up the brain and information is not optimally communicated between different parts of the brain, so it reduces your ability to interact with your environment, or immediate family and loved ones at home," Rezai said.
About 5.4 million people in the U.S., or one in eight older adults, have Alzheimer's disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association. The cost of compensated Alzheimer's-related care was estimated to be $200 billion in 2012.
"Alzheimer's is becoming a bigger and bigger problem with our aging population," Rezai said. "Medications can help somewhat, but not dramatically, and unfortunately the course of the disease is a progressive loss of memory, thinking ability and worsening behavioral functions."
That's why any potential new treatment is welcome news. Early results from their one patient are good, but Rezai stressed that it's too soon to make any conclusions.
"It's very early on, and it's research, so it may not work ultimately, but we're encouraged by the initial results," he said.
Johns Hopkins University is running a similar multicenter study using DBS for Alzheimer's patients, but they are targeting a different area of the brain. While the Ohio State team is using the device to stimulate an area of the frontal lobe involved in attention and memory, the Johns Hopkins team is looking at the fornix, a critical pathway in bringing information to the learning and memory areas of the brain.
The OSU study is open to patients ages 45 to 85 years old with mild disease. Patients must have symptoms such as memory or concentration lapses, forgetting names or the location of objects, forgetting the sequence of common actions, and trouble with planning complex tasks. To be eligible, patients must live at home with family or a caretaker and be able to see and hear well enough to take memory tests during the study.
Because it might be difficult for some patients to complete informed consent for the trial, caregivers and family members will be allowed to consent to their participation, as with other research carried out on subjects with memory or brain impairments, Rezai said.
The researchers will also use a brain scan called positron emission tomography to measure how well the brain is working during the study.
"It just breaks your heart to see these patients, and it's heartbreaking for families," Rezai said. "If we can do something to help them or facilitate their comfort and dignity, or reduce the amount of round-the-clock care they need, that's significant."
The study will run for two years. It is being funded by the university and private donors.
On Twitter: @briezeltner