A blood test to predict Alzheimer's based on fluorescence spectroscopy
Description: Alzheimer's disease is the major cause of dementia in the developed world. With the numbers of affected individuals projected to rise further as the population ages, the cost to the patient, caregivers and society, currently amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars per year, will rise steeply in the coming decades. At present, there is no cure, and available treatments are minimally effective. The medical community and policy-makers predict that this disease will become an epidemic in the coming decades if treatments are not developed to slow its impact.Consensus has emerged that treatment will only be effective if started very early in the disease course. However diagnosing Alzheimer's early is challenging, as there are currently no easy tests to detect it -- presently the only relatively reliable tests require a spinal tap or the injection of radioactive tracers into the patient followed by imaging with expensive scanners. Our proposal aims to develop an inexpensive, non-invasive blood test for detecting the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease. Recognizing that eventual therapeutics will likely only be effective before clinical AD becomes apparent, this assay may be transformative because it will a) allow more reliable selection of patients for clinical trials in the earliest stages of disease, thus greatly increasing the chances of developing an effective drug that can slow its progression, and then b) allowing screening of at-risk populations (much as is done with cholesterol testing presently) so that when therapies become available, treatment can be instituted early, and effectiveness monitored, in patients destined to develop Alzheimer's disease in the years to come.
Amount: $293,400
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: Biomarkers
Start date: 2017-07-01
End date: 2020-10-31
Investigator: Peter Stys
Institution: University of Calgary
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: ADDF-3386
OpenAlex ID: G9000654615