Over the past 2 years, BioE, Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC), and the National Institutes of Health have participated in a collaborative research project investigating proteins that may help to determine a reliable biological marker for early stage Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Loma Linda University's Neurosurgery Center for Research, Training, and Education received official approval of a $6.5 million grant from the NIH to further fund this research.
The collaborative research focuses on genetics and proteomics. The study, "Iron Metabolism Alterations in Alzheimer's Disease," will track iron metabolism in a group of patients to determine if changes in peripheral blood correlate with changes seen in the brain by utilizing a special sequence MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). The ultimate goal of the study is to develop a diagnostic tool for the early diagnosis of AD. It will enable a better understanding of the development of AD and its relationship to certain risk factors that may be preliminary indicators of the disease.
"The ability to positively detect Alzheimer's Disease in patients at a very early stage, prior to the onset of symptoms, will contribute greatly to the success of treatment and provide a very important tool to researchers toward possibly discovering the cure of this devastating disease," says Wolff M. Kirsch, principal investigator for the study and professor of biochemistry and neurosurgery at LLU, as well as director of the Neurosurgery Center for Research, Training, and Education.
In July 2001, BioE and LLUMC entered an agreement granting BioE an option to acquire an exclusive license to commercialize certain new technology covered under the Medical Center's Patent rights for "Iron Regulating Protein-2 (IRP-2) as a Diagnostic for Alzheimer's Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases." The technology developed will incorporate BioE's recently patented method for simultaneous detection of binding pair complexes. "I believe we are on our way to the first commercially available screening test, using peripheral blood, to positively identify if a patient has important gene mutations associated with the development of Alzheimer's Disease. These gene products may also provide an important focal point for the development of new therapeutics," says Dr. Daniel Collins, BioE's founder and Chief Scientific Officer.