Signal-enhanced MRI contrast agents for neurodegeneration

Introduction

Despite decades of research, neurodegenerative diseases remain challenging to diagnose and identify on time. At the point external symptoms, such as memory or motor deficits, become evident, the patient has usually suffered irreparable neuronal damage. This not only decreases the quality of life and expectancy of the patient but also severely limits our ability to design new effective treatments and apply existing ones in a timely manner.

Early Diagnosis Approach

A promising approach for early diagnosis could be the visualization of metabolic changes in the brain. There are specific differences in the points of origin for different neurodegenerative diseases. The fact that the metabolism of neurons changes when they are exposed to internal or external stressors makes detecting changes in the metabolism of specific brain regions, in comparison to the rest of the organ, a potentially powerful tool to early diagnose the onset of neurodegeneration.

Development of Magnetic Resonance Technologies

During the course of my ERC starting grant, my team and I have developed new magnetic resonance technologies and contrast agents based on the body's own metabolites. These metabolic contrast agents can not only visualize the overall metabolism of observed tissues but also show differences in the rate of resulting metabolites, further increasing the potential diagnostic accuracy.

Before the developments made in my ERC project, especially a fast and simple approach to obtain such contrast agents was out of reach. In first experiments, we provided evidence that my approach can be used to detect the onsets of Parkinson’s disease, one severe neurodegenerative illness.

Project Goals

With the project outlined in this PoC, we now aim to determine the feasibility of our technology as a clinical solution and a business opportunity. Our goals include:

1. Enabling timely, straightforward, fast, and non-invasive diagnosis for neurodegenerative diseases.
2. Bringing our technology into the clinics.
3. Improving patient health on a global scale in the future.

The success of this project will be the first important step towards achieving these goals.