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NTAD & SHINE

A researcher overseeing an MRI scan of a participant

The Synaptic Health theme of Dementias Platform UK, aims to understand how synaptic changes lead to cognitive impairment; and how these differences can best be measured in humans and used to support early interventions in neurodegenerative diseases.

DPUK has, since 2017 funded the following Synaptic Health studies:

1) The New Therapeutics of Alzheimer’s Disease (NTAD) study which ran between 2018 to 2022.

2) The Synaptic Health in Neurodegeneration (SHINE) study which started participant recruitment in December 2023 and is still ongoing.

To quantify the loss of synapses in people with Alzheimer’s disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and understand the impact of this loss on brain function and cognition, we are testing cutting edge brain scanning methods and analysing blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF, the fluid around the brain). Participants from both NTAD and SHINE undergo a series of imaging scans including magnetoencephalography (MEG), Position Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). They also engage in clinical and neuropsychological assessments alongside, blood and CSF collection at specific time points to assess whether certain proteins expressed in people with Alzheimer’s Disease (including MCI) are associated with worsening clinical symptoms; with sufficient sensitivity and reliability to support clinical trials.

Both studies investigate how these markers correlate with the loss of synapses as seen on brain scans and how these changes correlate with brain function, information processing and memory. The complementary information from brain imaging, blood and CSF analysis provides extra validation to our methods. It also allows research teams to measure synapses and cognitive-physiology using emerging technologies and methods developed by DPUK’s leading research partners in universities, the pharmaceutical industry, including Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), AstraZeneca and Lilly.  The discovery of these markers is anticipated to play an important role in testing new treatment possibilities in early-stage clinical trials.