NeuREN – Work package 6 : Partners: UB2, UL, USJ, USEK
(Research program: Medical imaging of neurological disorders)
Objectives
To find and use new imaging bio-markers of disease activity and to play the role of surrogate markers in clinical trial in neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and associated disorders, HIV Encephalitis, Multiple Sclerosis and neuroinflammatory disorders, and stroke through designed cohort MRI studies.
Description of work
Task 6.1 (Aging/Alzheimer) To validate the time course of 3T MRI imaging biomarkers such as rate of local and global atrophy and occurrence of new brain events including lacunar infarcts, microbleeds, brain edema after immunotherapy in i) differentiating cerebral ageing from Alzheimer’s disease and associated disorders; ii) playing the role of surrogate markers of disease progression in clinical trials;
Task 6.2. (HIV) To investigate whether or not cerebral ageing of HIV patients share similar feature with the “natural” ageing and or can be viewed as “accelerated” ageing in order to build diagnosis/prognosis scores of HIV-infected patients;
Task 6.3 (Multiple Sclerosis) To better understand the pathologic substratum underpinning the reduction of information processing speed that is encountered at the early stage of MS, in a subgroup of the national cohort of MS patients (OFSEP), specifically looking for cortical MS lesions, basal ganglia MS-related iron deposit and small cortico-subcortical fiber lesions using tractography;
Task 6.4 (Brain Inflammation) To validate iron oxide particles USPI field MRI (3T and 7T) in clinical practice and to monitor treatment efficacy in clinical trials (surrogate marker). This collaborative project will be conducted in collaboration with the Guerbet pharmaceutical company and the Neurospin center (for the 7T MRI scan).
Task 6.5 (Stroke) To search for subtle damages related to macro and /or micro vessels at the time of the first stroke (status of the non-infracted brain) in the prospect of validating new biomarkers for an early estimation of the clinical prognosis and for guiding therapy.
Deliverables
D 6.1 Validation of bio-markers sensitive to acceleration of brain ageing in Alzheimer’s patients and in HIV patients.
D 6.2 Correlation between early cognitive impairment in MS patients and selected biomarkers.
D 6.3 The impact of a new MRI contrast agent at several fields strengths on the prognostic and therapy evaluation in MS patients.
D 6.4 Correlation between the non-infracted brain and clinical outcome (disability and cognitive impairment) in stroke patients.
D 6.5 Deliverables 6.1 to 6.4 will be tested as surrogate markers for treatment efficacy in clinical trials and translated to individual patients
Researchers involved
Bordeaux: 6 Seniors Researchers (T. Tourdias, V. Dousset, B. Brochet, G. Chene, I. Sibon, M. Deloire), 3 Junior Researchers (H. Arguillot, T. Nishiguchi, A. Ruet), 2 Research assistants (I. Tedeschi, S. Ledure)
Quebec: 2 Senior Researcher (S. Duchesne, M. Maziade), 1 Junior Researcher (P. Jackson), 3 Research Assistants (P.E. Michon, N. Robitaille, A. Mouiha)
Beirut (USJ): 6 Senior Researchers (J. Tamraz, S. Slaba, A. Awada, S. Koussa, S. Richa, R. El Hayeck, H. Abboud), 2 Junior Researchers (S. Yazbeck, G. Macaron)
Beirut (USEK): 2 Senior Researchers (K. Kallab, H. Mattar), 1 Junior Researcher (H. Djemaiel), 1 Research Assistant (S. Lahoud)