Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ADDIT-CE (Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostics Innovation and Translation to Clinical Practice in Central Europe)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-01-01 bis 2024-03-31
More than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. Alzheimer disease (AD) is the main cause of this fatal disorder, without any effective disease-modifying therapy. Early diagnosis and lifestyle modifications can significantly reduce care and treatment costs. There is no conceptual plan for implementing modern diagnostic methods in clinical practice in Czechia and Slovakia. The interaction between universities and the private sector in developing molecular diagnostic tools is fragmented and lacking. A limited number of talented students are invested in applied AD-focused research. The aim of ADDIT-CE is to interlink two ecosystems in Brno and Bratislava region, embracing the full quadruple helix of innovation-driving actors: excellent scientific teams from Masaryk University, and Slovak Academy of Sciences, collaborating with top biotech companies: Geneton, BioVendor, and MultiplexDX. Societal actors will be represented by organizations such as Slovak and Czech Alzheimer Societies, Memory Center, and Czech Brain Aging Study. The regional government will be involved via the Ministry of Health Slovak Republic and the South Moravian Innovation Centre. The joined ecosystems will unite R&I activities focusing on new diagnostic methods and their applications and further interlink academia and business spheres by creating a pilot industrial PhD program. ADDIT-CE will generate a joint cross-border strategy covering basic and applied research activities aiming at accelerating the development of new tools for preclinical AD diagnostics and lifestyle/pharmacological intervention monitoring. New cutting-edge technologies will be transferred into clinical practice. Results of ADDIT-CE will be used to develop the Slovak National Plan to Combat Dementia, to enrich the Czech National Plan for AD, and will be widely disseminated to end users and society. ADDIT-CE will join forces with the involved ecosystems to revolutionize diagnostic approaches in both countries.
The consortium has made progress in developing a Joint R&I Strategy, including completing the Report on Research, Exploitation Potential, and Market Analysis. We are currently working on the Preliminary Joint R&I Strategy and have submitted two joint research project proposals. Scientific efforts have focused on characterizing tau and ApoE, as well as developing a new miRNA-seq protocol to identify Alzheimer's biomarkers. Work has also involved synchronizing protocols and sharing knowledge between Czech and Slovak centers, standardizing sample collection, and engaging end-users through conferences and events. We have strengthened business-academia linkages through hands-on training, involving industrial PhD students, and conducting a soft-skills workshop on IPR and entrepreneurship. Additionally, seven scientific publications have been submitted to high-impact journals.
The progress and impact of the project's scientific work are currently very promising. We have launched multiple activities that will potentially lead to the discovery of new tau, ApoE and miRNA biomarkers. We have proposed the antigens for mice immunisation, which is the initial step for the generation of specific antibodies and subsequently for tau assay. Our miRNA protocol already has much better sensitivity than the industry standard. The structural insight into the tau protein provided us with information about the complexity of the interaction between tau and 14-3-3ζ proteins, and we proposed several novel binding models. Our results connected the ApoE4 structure with its aggregation propensity. However, further research is essential to ensure our innovations reach their full potential and achieve widespread impact.