ArticleScientific reports2023
A randomized, blinded study of photobiomodulation in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease showed no preventive effect.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Photobiomodulation in the aging brain: a systematic review from animal models to humans.GeroScience · 2024Pooled it
- Review
- From light to healing: photobiomodulation therapy in medical disciplines.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Review
- Sleep is a therapeutic window for photostimulation of drainage of aging brain.Frontiers of optoelectronics · 2025Article
- Use of Mitochondrial Delayed Luminescence Measurements From Brain Tissue to Optimize Photobiomodulation Prarameters in Alzheimer's Disease Mice.Journal of biophotonics · 2025Article
- Targeting the glymphatic system: Aβ accumulation and phototherapy strategies across different stages of Alzheimer's disease.Translational neurodegeneration · 2025Review
- Enhancing sleep, wakefulness, and cognition with transcranial photobiomodulation: a systematic review.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Review
- Photobiomodulation in experimental models of Alzheimer's disease: state-of-the-art and translational perspectives.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Photobiomodulation (PBM), the process of exposing tissue to red or near-infrared light, has become a topic of great interest as a therapy for diverse pathologies, including neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we aimed to evaluate the potential beneficial effect of PBM on Alzheimer's disease (AD) using behavioral and histological readouts from a well-established transgenic murine AD model (5xFAD mice) in a randomized and fully blinded long-term in-vivo study following GLP (Good Laboratory Practices) guidelines. The heads of the mice were illuminated with no (sham), low or high power 810 nm light, three times a week for 5 months from the first to the sixth month of life corresponding to the prodromal phase of the pathology. The results showed that there were no significant differences between the groups in behavioral tests, including the Morris water maze, novel object recognition, and Y-maze. Similarly, histological analyses showed no differences in amyloid load, neuronal loss or microglial response. In conclusion, under the conditions of our experiment, we were unable to demonstrate any therapeutic effect of PBM for AD. This study calls for further evidence and caution when considering PBM as an effective treatment for AD.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.