Electrophoretics Limited

University of California

Claire Louise Russell

Ian Hugo Pike

Malcolm Andrew Ward

Corey S Goodman

Thomas Kidd

Kevin J Mitchell

Guy Tear

Vikram Mitra

The invention relates to panels of biomarkers including proteins phosphatase 1 regulatory subunit 14A and/or 2',3′-cyclic-nucleotide 3′-phosphodiesterase and/or phosphorylated tau or fragments thereof and methods using thereof for diagnosing, staging, treating and assessing the response of a treatment for a neurocognitive disorder characterised by tau toxicity, in particular for Alzheimer's disease. The present invention shows that the biomarkers disclosed herein are elevated in the brain of subjects with an advanced stage of a neurocognitive disorder (Braak stage V/VI) and/or are regulated in the CSF of AD subjects in comparison to cognitively affected non-AD controls; and/or regulated in response to two casein kinase 1 delta inhibitors.

Biomolecules involved in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia in aging adults with the number of people living with AD projected to increase, making the search for treatments and tools to diagnose and measure disease progression increasingly urgent. In particular, ideal biomarkers for diagnosis of AD should not only have high specificity for disease versus non-disease and high sensitivity for distinguishing between disease types but also should be able to detect changes at a very early stage of the disease. Using microglia activation as an early event of AD's onset, the present inventors have identified a panel of biomarkers in CSF which has the potential to diagnose, stage and determine the likelihood of developing AD.

Materials and methods for diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease

The amount of active Robo expressed on a cell is modified by modulating the effective amount of a Comm polypeptide in contact with the cell, whereby the amount of expressed active Robo is modulated inversely with the modulation of the effective amount of the Comm polypeptide in contact with the cell. In a particular embodiment, the Comm polypeptide is provided to the cell by exogenously in a pharmaceutically acceptable composition. In another aspect, the invention provides methods of screening for agents which modulate Robo-Comm interactions. These methods generally involve forming a mixture of a Robo-expressing cell, a Comm polypeptide and a candidate agent, and determining the effect of the agent on the amount of Robo expressed by the cell.

Method for modulating nerve cell function

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London, United Kingdom

Claire Louise Russell