Description du projet
Ralentir la progression de la maladie d’Alzheimer grâce à la lumière clignotante
Les traitements disponibles pour la maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) sont inefficaces et ne parviennent pas à freiner les dommages cérébraux progressifs et irréversibles. Des preuves récentes indiquent que la lumière clignotante non invasive peut éliminer la protéine bêta-amyloïde, l’une des caractéristiques pathogènes de la MA, et conférer une protection neuronale. Le projet BRIGHT, financé par l’UE, entend conduire une étude de faisabilité pour une thérapie novatrice de lumière blanche clignotante capable de stimuler les récepteurs visuels et le cortex de traitement humains. La lumière blanche est formée via différentes LED colorées et ne cause aucune fatigue par rapport à la lumière stroboscopique. L’intervention proposée est susceptible de retarder l’apparition de la maladie, de réduire sa prévalence ainsi que les coûts associés.
Objectif
While Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a global pandemic, it has been estimated that a five-year delay in the disease onset could reduce the disease prevalence – and its costs – by up to 33% over the next decades, representing potential savings over €100bn in EU alone. However, there are still significant roadblocks ahead as current drugs do not untap sizeable improvements in AD patients. This is primarily due to the challenge of minimizing the impact of irreversible brain damage in later dementia stages, which accentuates the need for early intervention. However, recent evidence shows that non-invasive flashing (stroboscopic) light at the appropriate frequency (40 Hz) promotes clearance of beta-amyloid – whose accumulation is believe to be one of the key triggers to the neurodegenerative cascade leading to dementia states.
Instead of using fadigue-inducing stroboscopic flashing light (i.e. on-off), the founding members of OptoCeutics have devised a unique, patent-protected method to stimulate the human visual receptors and processing cortex through alternating white light composed of different wavelengths. The two variants of the white light are formed by different combinations of coloured LEDs. When flickering between the two LED sets, the colours fusion together and appear as one, resulting in approximately the same white colour, avoiding experiencing light flashing, but the brain is capturing the blue component flashing with 40 Hz – thus still promoting neuro-protective beta-amyloid clearance.
OptoCeutics will leverage from BRIGHT as a vital stepping stone to prepare the company’s business strategy, serving also to significantly de-risk its route-to-market by enabling to liaise with major industrial and clinical players to define both the optimal productization and maturation of Optoceutics core technology, as well as the setup for its full-scale demonstration and certification, prior market roll-out.
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SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinateur
1610 KOBENHAVN V
Danemark
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.