NederlandsNitroglycerin and vibration help the brain clear an Alzheimer's protein
Finnish researchers gave healthy people a nitroglycerin tablet under the tongue and had them lie on a vibrating surface. Afterwards, their blood held a third more amyloid-beta, a sign that the brain cleared the Alzheimer's protein faster. The next step is research in patients.
Researchers at the University of Oulu in Finland have found a simple way to give the brain's natural cleaning system a boost. Healthy volunteers received a nitroglycerin tablet under the tongue and then lay on a vibrating surface for over half an hour. Afterwards, their blood contained clearly more amyloid-beta: the protein that clumps together in the brain in Alzheimer's disease. According to the researchers, this means the protein was flushed out of the brain faster. The study was published on 3 November 2026 in the journal Nature Communications.
A cleaning service that slows down with age
The brain constantly produces waste, including proteins such as amyloid-beta. It has its own drainage system for this: brain fluid flows along the blood vessels through the brain tissue, picks up the waste and carries it away to the blood. Researchers call this the glymphatic system. The pulsing of the blood vessels with every heartbeat and breath helps push that fluid forward, like a pump.
Over the years, this drainage becomes slower. As a result, amyloid-beta can build up over decades and clump into plaques, a typical sign of Alzheimer's disease. The researchers think it helps if the drainage works harder again, preferably before the protein clumps together.
Two stimuli for the blood vessels
The team, led by doctoral researcher Johanna Tuunanen and Professor Vesa Kiviniemi, combined two stimuli that both act on the blood vessels.
- Nitroglycerin is a well-known heart medicine. In the body it releases nitric oxide, a substance that widens blood vessels. This lowers blood pressure.
- Vibration at a low frequency, between 22 and 50 vibrations per second, from a vibrating element under the head. Such vibrations stimulate pressure-sensitive sensors in the walls of the blood vessels, which help regulate the tension of the vessels.
Together, they made the blood vessels in the brain pulse more strongly, the researchers saw in fast brain scans. This extra movement would push the brain fluid through the tissue with more force.
More waste protein in the blood
The study involved 29 healthy adults aged between 27 and 61. On different days, in random order, they received nitroglycerin only, vibration only, and both together.
After the combination, the level of amyloid-beta in the blood rose by about a third, for both forms of the protein that the researchers measured. A protein from the brain's support cells (GFAP) also appeared in larger amounts in the blood. MRI scans showed that after the treatment there was less protein and bound water in the brain, and more in the large vein that carries blood out of the brain. According to the researchers, this is the first time such a flow of proteins from the brain to that vein has been seen.
Not all substances followed. One form of the Alzheimer's protein tau and a protein from nerve cells did not change in the blood. The researchers think the size of a protein decides whether it can leave the brain this way: smaller proteins can, larger ones find it harder.
Promising, but not for home use
Kiviniemi is enthusiastic. He told the Finnish broadcaster Yle that there is a realistic chance of a treatment that can prevent dementia. Tuunanen stresses that more research is needed first. The next step is to find out whether the treatment improves memory and daily functioning in people with Alzheimer's.
The study now shows that the drainage temporarily speeds up in healthy people. Follow-up research has to show whether this prevents plaques or slows down Alzheimer's in the long run.
The researchers explicitly warn against trying this at home. Nitroglycerin can make blood pressure drop dangerously, and in older people the body regulates blood pressure less well. In the study, blood pressure fell on average from 134/79 to 114/67 (upper and lower pressure). Four participants got headaches and three felt sick; one of them stopped because of this. There were no serious side effects.
What does this mean for the road to the singularity?
Alzheimer's is one of the major diseases standing in the way of a longer, healthy life. Most medicines try to clear clumps that are already there. This approach looks one step earlier: helping the brain get rid of its own waste, using an existing medicine and a vibrating element instead of expensive equipment. That this works measurably in people is a first step. If larger studies manage to keep the drainage at this level for years, it could one day become a simple way to keep the brain healthy as we grow older.
What is the technological singularity? Read the explanation →
