King's College London

Other

Electrophoretics Limited

Proteome Sciences Plc

Simon Lovestone

Malcolm Andrew Ward

Abdul Hye

Karsten Kuhn

Stefan Kienle

Helen Louise Byers

Richard Joubert

Juergen Schaefer

Jack Price

Christian Baumann

Petra Prefot

Jules Westbrook

Thorsten Prinz

Richard James Butler Dobson

Tytus Murphy

Aleksandra Maruszak

Sandrine Thuret-Hindges

Stephen Lynham

Malcom Ward

Stefan Kielne

Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia in older individuals, is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease for which there is currently no cure. In the past, AD could only be definitively diagnosed by brain biopsy or upon autopsy after a patient died. These methods, which demonstrate the presence of the characteristic plaque and tangle lesions in the brain, are still considered the gold standard for the pathological diagnoses of AD. However, in the clinical setting brain biopsy is rarely performed and diagnosis depends on a battery of neurological, psychometric and biochemical tests, including the measurement of biochemical markers such as the ApoE and tau proteins or the beta-amyloid peptide in cerebrospinal fluid and blood. The present invention discloses and describes panels of makers that are differentially expressed in the disease state relative to their expression in the normal state and, in particular, identifies and describes panels of makers associated with neurocognitive disorders. Such biomarker panel might have considerable value in triaging patients with early memory disorders to yet more specific but more invasive and costly approaches such as molecular markers in CSF and on PET imaging in clinical trials and possibly in clinical practice.

Biomarkers and methods relating to Alzheimer's disease

The invention disclosed herein is for an in vitro cell-based assay for predicting the conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease in a patient who has received a diagnosis of MCI. The method comprises the following steps: a) culturing human hippocampal progenitor cells in a culture medium comprising serum, obtained from said patient, during a period of proliferation of said progenitor cells; b) subsequently culturing said hippocampal progenitor cells in a culture medium comprising serum, obtained from said patient, during a period of differentiation of said progenitor cells; c) determining the level of proliferation of said cultured progenitor cells; d) determining the average cell count of said cultured progenitor cells; and e) monitoring apoptotic cell death after differentiation of the proliferated hippocampal progenitor cells, wherein the outcomes of each of (c) to (e) are applied to a statistical analysis, the result of which is predictive of conversion from MCI to AD in the patient.

Assay for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease

Methods and compositions relating to Alzheimer's disease are provided. Specifically, proteins that are differentially expressed in the Alzheimer's disease state relative to their expression in the normal state are provided. Proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease are identified and described. Methods of diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease using the differentially expressed proteins are also provided, as are methods for the identification and therapeutic use of compounds for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Methods of diagnosing Alzheimer's disease

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London, United Kingdom

Simon Lovestone