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Synapsing Mental Disorders and Neurodegenerative diseases: Towards more effective diagnosis and management of psychiatric symptoms

Project description

Understanding synapse dysfunction in mental and neurodegenerative disorders

Synaptic dysfunction contributes to emotional, behavioural and cognitive symptoms, often overlapping in mental disorders (MDs) and neurodegenerative disorders (NDs). Pharmaceutical treatments of these symptoms are often ineffective in both types of disorders. Working with MD and ND clinics, the EU-funded SYNAPSING project will produce the first trans-European collection of clinical, neuroimaging and socioeconomic data from more than 3 000 patients. SYNAPSING will search the data for blood biomarkers for better diagnosis, treatment and treatment monitoring. The project will also use post-mortem brain tissue and neurons from MD and ND patients to model synapse dysfunction. Finally, the consortium will address socio-economic disparities impacting healthcare by identifying modifiable socio-economic risk factors for psychiatric symptoms.

Objective

Disrupted neuronal connectivity and synapse dysfunction can manifest clinically as a range of emotional, behavioural and cognitive symptoms that are common to, and often overlapping in, mental disorders (MDs) such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) such as Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons disease. Antidepressants and antipsychotics used to treat these symptoms are often ineffective in ND patients and treatment-resistance is common in MD patients. To tackle the burden exacted on society by untreated psychiatric symptoms, Synapsing will generate the first trans-European clinical collection of clinical, neuroimaging and socioeconomic data from >3000 patients from MD and ND clinics for use in Synapsing and beyond. Synapsing aims to introduce a biological framework for MDs through a search for blood biomarkers to engender a faster, more objective diagnosis and reduce misdiagnosis with NDs. To minimise the use of inefficient treatments across MDs and NDs, Synapsing will develop blood biomarkers to objectively monitor therapeutic response and to stratify patients who would benefit from therapeutic intervention. To guide the development of more effective treatments, Synapsing will model synapse dysfunction using post-mortem brain tissue and induced pluripotent stem cell derived neurons from MD and ND patients. To prevent social disparities impacting on healthcare, Synapsing will identify modifiable socioeconomic risk factors for psychiatric symptoms in >2000 individuals with a lived experience of mental health issues and MD and ND patients recruited across Europe. Recommendations for evidence-based policy initiatives targeted towards reducing these risk factors will be disseminated to EU council agencies. Expected outcomes include better understanding of these under-researched conditions, revised clinical guidelines to better diagnose and manage patients and strengthened knowledge and care networks.

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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-03-two-stage

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Coordinator

INSTITUT DE RECERCA DE L'HOSPITAL DE LA SANTA CREU I SANT PAU FUNDACION
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 014 147,05
Address
C SANT QUINTI 77-79
08041 BARCELONA
Spain

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

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Participants (12)

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