Degenerative and vascular cognitive discorders

Presentation

This team, made up of clinical and pre-clinical researchers, is multidisciplinary. It is located at the interface between neurology, pharmacology and imaging. The research project is focused on the translational, transnosographic and multimodal study of cognitive disorders associated with degenerative processes or neurovascular lesions, starting from the observation that the mechanisms are entangled.

  • Innovative prognostic and theragnostic biomarkers for target discovery and clinical trial design in neurodegenerative diseases

Project 

After decades of research, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) still don’t have neuroprotective treatment. This, at least in part, relies on the lack of reliable and sensitive biomarkers of disease severity and progression. Therefore, to develop new therapeutic approaches to slow down or halt the progression of the disease there is an unmet need to i) identify prognostic biomarkers to predict progression and stratify patients for more adapted and better care and ii) identify theragnostic biomarkers to predict the efficacy of a given treatment.

Due to diverse etiology and multiple pathophysiological pathways involved in neurodegenerative diseases, it is crucial to perform reliable analysis of multiparametric biomarkers (clinical, biofluidic, imaging and genetics) to accurately predict disease progression.

This project therefore aims to i) uncover innovative biomarkers on PD and ALS using reliable animal models; and ii) to translate their relevance on PD and ALS patients’ cohorts. To this end, we will analyze various biological markers such as miRNA, perform unbiased proteomics and get insights from extracellular vesicles isolated from fluids to develop mathematics algorithms and artificial intelligence to provide multiparametric analysis and predictive models.

Partnership: this project will bring together transdisciplinar and transversal research teams

  • Lil’N’Cog Center: team Pr Devos, team Dr Blum
  • Lille University: Department of Mathematic headed by Dr Broustet, IMPECS lab headed by Dr LoGuidice
  • LIIFE platform in Lille: small animal and human imageries facilities
  • Clinical proteomics platform in Montpellier headed by Pr Hirtz
  • Brain Institute: team Aramis Dr Durrleman
  • Biomolecules Max Mousseron Institute (Montpellier University): team Dr Durand

 

Highlights

  • Combination of biological and genetic ferroptotic biomarkers may predict severity, progression and outcome in Parkinson’s disease. Paper in preparation
  • Regular caffeine consumption has no detrimental effect on ALS’s patient phenotype and survival but patients with a rare SNP variant of CYP1A1 that impacts caffeine metabolization, positively impact the cognitive effect of caffeine on cognitive disorders. Paper in preparation
  • The use of topological data analysis on diffusion MRI may predict the progression of Parkinson’s disease. Preliminary results

 

Grants

  • “Fonds Hospitalier” of CHU of Lille (2019): 30 k€
  • France Parkinson Association (2021): 60 k€
  • PEPS theme AMIES (co-laureate, 2023): 7 k€