Description du projet
Un logiciel permet d’appliquer des marqueurs IRM avancés aux images cérébrales provenant d’appareils IRM standard
La maladie des petits vaisseaux cérébraux (MPVC), comme son nom l’indique, se caractérise par des anomalies structurelles et fonctionnelles importantes de la microcirculation cérébrale. Elle est très fréquente chez les personnes âgées et est l’un des principaux facteurs d’AVC et d’hémorragies cérébrales. La MPVC est également une des principales causes des troubles cognitifs et de la démence. Il est actuellement difficile de visualiser la pathologie in vivo avant que des dommages ne soient causés et aucun médicament n’existe pour sa prévention ou son traitement. SELMA a développé des techniques pour visualiser ces petits vaisseaux dans de puissantes machines d’IRM 7-Tesla (7T). Le projet vise à transférer les séquences d’impulsions de l’IRM 7T vers des scanners IRM 3T courants via des outils d’analyse automatisés pour permettre leur utilisation omniprésente et développer des traitements efficaces de la MPVC grâce à des biomarqueurs robustes.
Objectif
Problem:
Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is a hallmark of serious brain diseases such as acute stroke and dementia. It has a major impact on society, since it affects quality of life of many ageing individuals, and increasingly challenges the healthcare resources. Current image-based biomarkers do not reflect SVD itself, but rather macroscopic, irreversible brain damage, secondary to the abnormalities of the small vessels. This greatly hampers development of new drugs as clinical trials lack effective biomarkers directly reflecting SVD.
Solution:
The SmallVesselMRI ERC project (337333), yielded 7T MRI methods with the potential to offer a paradigm shift in SVD research. We have developed new MRI measures that, for the first time, allow non-invasive assessment of the condition of the small vessels themselves, including blood flow velocity pulsation in small perforating vessels, which informs on vessel stiffness. The current proof-of-concept project ‘trial-ready Small vEsseL MRI MArkers (SELMA) aims to make these novel promising vascular parameters ready for use in phase II/III clinical trials. Our ambition is to bridge the gap between high end imaging research platforms and widespread clinical MRI, in order to enable drug-target engagement studies in clinical trials for newly developed drugs.
SELMA will:
1) Port the small-vessel 7T MRI pulse sequences to clinically ubiquitous 3T MRI scanners. 2) Develop a software tool that can provide robust, automated data analysis. 3) Determine the reproducibility of the SELMA biomarkers in a group of 35 healthy individuals with scan-rescan experiments. 4) Provide clinical proof of concept by a pilot study in 15 patients with SVD, measuring the vascular parameters before and after administration of a pharmaceutical agent. Using results of our proof of concept study, we will develop a business plan to approach the pharmaceutical industry to change the paradigm in drug development for SVD treatment.
Champ scientifique
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug discovery
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata science
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugs
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologydementia
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologystroke
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantInstitution d’accueil
3584 CX Utrecht
Pays-Bas