400 Section - Research on the Application of Facial Lymphatic Drainage in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Research Objectives

This study aims to explore the therapeutic effect of facial lymphatic drainage on AD model animals and patients, clarify its mechanism of delaying the pathological progression of AD by improving CSF drainage and promoting the clearance of toxic proteins, and provide a new strategy and experimental basis for the non-pharmacological treatment of AD.

Design: Subjects: 40 APP/PS1 double-transgenic AD mice (experimental vs. control groups) + 20 wild-type mice; 30 mild-to-moderate AD patients (intervention vs. control groups).

- Intervention: Experimental/intervention groups received modified Vodder-Leduc facial lymphatic drainage (mice: 20 mins/day for 12 weeks; patients: 30 mins/5 times/week for 24 weeks); controls received sham operation or routine care.

- Measures: CSF drainage efficiency, toxic protein levels, and cognitive function were detected; SPSS 26.0 was used for statistical analysis (P< 0.05 significant).

Results: Clinical study: After 24 weeks, the intervention group showed higher MMSE scores, lower ADAS-cog scores, improved cervical lymphatic drainage, and reduced TNF-α/IL-6 levels (P< 0.05) with good safety.

Conclusion:

Research Conclusions

This study confirms that facial lymphatic drainage can promote the clearance of Aβ and tau proteins in the brain of AD model animals, improve cognitive function by enhancing the function of meningeal lymphatic vessels and increasing CSF drainage efficiency; in clinical patients, this intervention can also effectively improve cognitive level, reduce inflammatory response, and has good safety. This finding reveals the potential value of facial lymphatic drainage in AD treatment and provides a new effective non-invasive approach for AD treatment. At the same time, it suggests that regulating lymphatic system function through physical means may become an important direction for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. In the future, further large-sample and long-term follow-up studies are needed to clarify its long-term efficacy and applicable population.