New applications for xenon: A new dawn for Alzheimer’s disease treatment
Rare gases such as krypton, neon, and xenon were once very popular. With prices soaring, Musk, the world’s richest man, also started to replace krypton with argon. Memory chips are the largest application area of krypton and xenon. Industry insiders say that with the introduction of new etching equipment for TEL and LAM, the use of rare gases such as xenon and krypton will be significantly reduced. The original light bulb industry used less, the glass industry used less, aerospace is also evaluating substitutability, and semiconductors will most likely be replaced in the future. So, where is the future of krypton and xenon? At this time, good news came from the medical field.
In early 2025, researchers from the University of Washington and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School) revealed an unprecedented way to treat Alzheimer’s disease-inhaling xenon can not only suppress neuroinflammation and reduce brain shrinkage, but also increase protective neuronal status.
Xenon and neuroprotection Alzheimer’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disease in humans, and its cause is thought to be related to the accumulation of tau and beta-amyloid proteins in the brain. Although existing drugs have attempted to remove these toxic proteins, they have not been effective in slowing the progression of the disease. Therefore, neither the underlying causes of the disease nor its treatments are fully understood. Studies have shown that inhaled xenon can cross the blood-brain barrier and significantly improve the condition of mice with a model of Alzheimer’s disease under laboratory conditions. The experiment was divided into two groups. One group of mice showed accumulation of tau protein, and the other group had accumulation of beta-amyloid protein. The results showed that xenon not only made the mice more active, but also promoted a protective response in microglia, cells that are critical for clearing tau and beta-amyloid.
The new findings are novel and demonstrate that neuroprotective effects can be produced simply by inhaling an inert gas. A major limitation in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research and treatment is the extreme difficulty of designing drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier, something xenon can do.
Other applications of xenon in medicine
1. Anesthesia and analgesia: As an ideal anesthetic gas, xenon is widely used because of its rapid induction and recovery characteristics, good cardiovascular stability and low risk of side effects;
2. Neuroprotective effect: In addition to the potential therapeutic effect on Alzheimer’s disease mentioned above, xenon has also been studied to reduce brain damage caused by neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE);
3. Organ transplantation and protection: Xenon may help protect donor organs from ischemia-reperfusion injury, which is very important for improving the success rate of transplantation;
4. Radiotherapy sensitivity: Some preliminary studies have pointed out that xenon may be able to enhance the sensitivity of tumors to radiotherapy, which provides a new strategy for cancer treatment.
