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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Sep 11.
Published in final edited form as: EC Pharmacol Toxicol. 2018 Feb 1;6(3):74–75.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease

Xudong Huang 1,*
PMCID: PMC6133268  NIHMSID: NIHMS939319  PMID: 30215058

Abstract

Recent studies indicate that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), a well-established therapy for decompression illness, could be a potential therapy for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, due to oxygen toxicity i.e., increased oxidative stress implicated in HBOT, the risk and benefit of HBOT for AD patients need to be further assessed clinically.

Keywords: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), Oxidative Stress

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) involves delivering 100% oxygen to patients in a pressurized chamber at an ambient pressure higher than atmospheric one. It is a well-established therapy for decompression illness. Other medical conditions treated with HBOT include fighting bacteria that causes serious infections; stimulating the release of growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing of wounds resulted from diabetes or radiation injury, etc [1].

Interestingly, hyperbaric oxygen and Ginkgo Biloba extract have been claimed to inhibit Aβ25-35-induced toxicity and oxidative stress, and neuronal apoptosis in vivo [2,3]. In rat models, they have also been indicated for ameliorating cognitive and memory impairment via NFkB pathway [4]; improving cognition and reducing hippocampal damage via p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase [5]. More recently, HBOT was shown to be able to reduce pathophysiology of PS1/APP/Tau Alzheimer’s disease (3xTg-AD) mouse model by attenuating neuroinflammation [6].

Although, HBOT seems to be beneficial for AD patients, the results should be interpreted cautiously due to its oxygen toxicity i.e. heightened oxidative stress given that oxidative stress has already been one of salient neuropathological features in AD [7]. Hence, the risk and benefit of HBOT for AD patients warrant further clinical examinations.

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