The Swedish BioFINDER-2 study (NCT03174938) was launched in 2017 and extends the previous BioFINDER-1 study using an independent population. It includes a larger number of study participants and state-of-the art brain imaging like tau-PET to e.g. address issues regarding the role of tau pathology in different dementias and in preclinical stages of different dementia diseases. Further, the clinical assessments and MRI methods have been further optimized compared to BioFINDER-1.General aims:
- Develop methods for improved diagnostic and prognostic work-up of different dementia disorders. This is important not only for the clinical diagnostic work-up, but also for selection of patients to clinical trials. Because dementia is very common among the elderly, but often misdiagnosed, we need to develop minimally invasive, reliable and affordable biomarkers for use in a primary care setting. This could include blood-based biomarkers which could be used to identify patients at high risk for a neurodegenerative disease. We also aim to develop new diagnostic algorithms using advanced imaging techniques and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers to diagnose patients prior to overt symptoms (when brain dysfunction is still limited and potentially reversible) in order to identify individuals more likely to respond to new disease-modifying therapies.
- Develop biomarkers and imaging techniques to monitor early effects of new disease-modifying therapies. Methods are needed that can reliably detect relevant changes in the turnover of Aβ, tau and α-synuclein. In the present study one focus will be to study the annual change in the retention of tau-PET ligands during both the prodromal and dementia stages of AD. Further, we need biomarkers that detect the intensity of ongoing synaptic/neuronal degeneration. Imaging methods revealing the functional and structural integrity of different brain networks might also be relevant.
- Investigate the heterogeneity of dementia and parkinsonian disorders to assist in the development of a new pathology-based disease classification. Current diagnostic work-up is based on symptomatology. However, the diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases) are heterogeneous with respect to clinical features and underlying pathologies. Moreover, there is also significant overlap between the diseases. Hence, today’s symptom-based clinical diagnostic criteria are likely too crude to provide an etiologically meaningful classification of patients. We will therefore work towards a pathology-based disease classification, using in vivo biomarkers that reflect the underlying brain pathologies, e.g. Aβ or tau. This will be especially useful for the development of new disease-modifying therapies, which are aimed at specific brain pathologies.
- Define the temporal evolution of pathologies in the predementia phases of Alzheimer’s disease. One of the last decade’s paradigm shifts in neuroscience has been the realization that AD, and likely also other neurodegenerative diseases, starts with a prolonged predementia phase. AD even starts with an asymptomatic phase, when brain pathology is present in the absence of clinical symptoms. It has become clear that we need to better understand the temporal sequence of pathologic events in these disorders to be able to select the optimal disease stages for interventions in clinical trials with different disease-modifying therapies directed at specific pathologies.
- Investigate the underlying disease mechanisms of dementia disorders in humans aiming at finding new relevant drug targets. BioFINDER-2 is a translational study where we will attempt to bridge the knowledge gap between cell/animal studies and studies in humans, by using biomarkers that reflect biological mechanisms that may be studied across model systems.
