Research project
The project builds on the use of our inhouse-developed assays for a new application in Alzheimer’s disease. The aim is to develop a novel biomarker system to detect and monitor severe adverse side effects of new immunotherapies for Alzheimer’s. These immunotherapies have demonstrated promising effect in clinical trials, and these new treatments have FDA approval, and one also approved in EU. Yet, these severe side effects, known as ARIA (Amyloid-Related Imaging Abnormalities, brain haemorrhaging) occur in up to 30-40% of patients on high doses are not addressed with current diagnostic tools.
Moreover, ARIA has also been described in association with CAA, perivascular inflammation, and/or impaired perivascular clearance¹. The state-of-the-art method for diagnosing CAA today, use of MRI imaging protocols, has limited sensitivity in incipient disease². These protocols rely on high tesla MRI instruments and advanced time-consuming protocols that are not widely or readily available for clinicians. Thus, CAA diagnosis is not applied in current immunotherapy strategies.
The two main industrial research challenges underpinning this project are (1) to document the link between novel fluid biomarkers, incipient amyloid angiopathy, CAA and ARIA, and (2) to document the link between in vivo and ex vivo monocyte Aβ clearance capacity, novel fluid biomarkers, incipient amyloid angiopathy and CAA. The results will be used to develop and validate diagnostic tests.
(1) Wu JJ, Yao M, Ni J. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation: current status and future implications. Chin Med J (Engl). 2021 Feb 23;134(6):646-654
(2) Greenberg, S. M. et al. Diagnosis of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy: Evolution of the Boston Criteria. Stroke 49, 491-497 (2018)
