Since entering into a cooperation project with Roche Diagnostics GmbH of Mannheim in 1999, Hanover-based biotechnology firm BioVisioN has identified a number of proteins that may enable early diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease and distinguish it from other forms of dementia. The cooperation between BioVisioN and Roche Diagnostics GmbH is therefore now entering a new phase.

BioVisioN began investigating the volumes of small proteins (peptides) in cerebrospinal fluid in 1999. Working together with Roche Diagnostics, this procedure was used successfully in 2000 and 2001 on samples taken from Alzheimer's sufferers, patients with other forms of dementia and control patients. This enabled molecules to be identified that changed content specifically in the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer's patients. Several patents have been filed on the basis of these findings, and another is currently being registered. Having assessed the data, Roche Diagnostics has now decided to test large groups of patients for the presence of the most promising of these peptides in serum, and it is currently developing an appropriate testing system.

More than a million people are afflicted with dementia in Germany alone, more than half of them in the form of Alzheimer's Disease. This is typically found in elderly people and -- due to its clinical phenotype -- often only diagnosed at an advanced stage. The different types of dementia require different treatment, which in the case of Alzheimer's in particular is only effective at a very early stage. The medicines currently available are of no use when prescribed at an advanced stage, and treatment focuses largely on adapting the patient's living conditions and surroundings. As a result, feverish research is underway to find a way to diagnose Alzheimer's specifically, and this reliably and even at an early stage.