ESP: An in-vitro diagnostic test for neurodegenerative disorders

帕金森氏病是最常见的退行性运动障碍，路易体痴呆是仅次于阿尔茨海默病的第二种最常见的痴呆症。帕金森氏症和DLB都有一种共同的病理，即α-突触核蛋白，这种蛋白会在大脑的神经细胞中产生称为路易小体的团块。帕金森氏症和DLB有不同症状的原因是因为路易小体杀死了大脑不同部位的神经细胞。在英国，每年约有2万人患上帕金森氏症，同时新增2万多例DLB病例。帕金森氏症或DLB的诊断可能需要长达3年的时间，并依赖于医院专家顾问的临床评估。脑部扫描是目前帮助诊断的最好方法，但只有五分之一的患者使用。不幸的是，DaTcan只能间接测量疾病，只在专业中心提供，只能检测确定的疾病，而且价格昂贵。帕金森氏症和DLB患者需要及早诊断，这样才能迅速给予正确的治疗。这一点在DLB中尤其重要，如果给这些患者开错了药，可能会发生危及生命的并发症。纽卡斯尔大学开发了一种名为ESP的新测试，用于诊断帕金森氏症和DLB患者。ESP测试可以通过测量帕金森氏症和DLB中发现的微小突触核蛋白块来检测脑脊液(脑脊液)或血液中的早期疾病变化。ESP具有明显的优势，因为它可以提供早期、准确、快速、微创的诊断，而成本只有DaTcan的一小部分。ESP可以使患者得到早期和准确的诊断，以便他们能够做出生活方式的调整，并迅速得到正确的治疗。与患者、临床医生和慈善组织的讨论发现，这一领域存在巨大的未得到满足的市场需求，并表示ESP测试将改变游戏规则，对这些疾病的早期和准确诊断。创新英国正在支持我们的新公司‘ESP诊断有限公司’，帮助进一步开发ESP测试。这将使ESP测试可以用于参加新疗法临床试验的帕金森氏症和DLB患者，并最终在英国和全球的医院将ESP用作帕金森氏症和DLB临床诊断的一部分。

Parkinson's disease is the most common degenerative movement disorder and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second commonest form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease. Parkinson's and DLB both share a common pathology, a-synuclein protein, which makes clumps called Lewy bodies in the nerve cells of the brain. The reason why Parkinson's and DLB have different symptoms is because the Lewy bodies kill nerve cells in different parts of the brain.Every year in the UK, around 20,000 people develop Parkinson's disease along with over 20,000 new cases of DLB. Diagnosis of Parkinson's or DLB can take up to 3 years and relies on clinical assessment by an expert hospital consultant. A brain scan (DaTScan) is currently the best way to help with diagnosis, but is used in only one fifth of patients. Unfortunately, DaTScan only indirectly measures disease, is only available at specialist centres, only detects established disease, and is expensive. Parkinson's and DLB patients need to be diagnosed early, so the correct treatment can be given quickly. This is especially important in DLB, where if these patients are prescribed the wrong medication, life-threatening complications can occur.Newcastle University has developed a new test called ESP - 'Extracellular Synucleinopathic Protein', for diagnosis of Parkinson's and DLB patients. ESP test can detect early disease changes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF - the fluid that bathes the brain) or in blood by measuring the microscopic clumps of synuclein protein found in Parkinson's and DLB. ESP has clear advantages since it could provide early, accurate, fast, minimally-invasive diagnosis, at a fraction of the cost of DaTScan. ESP could allow patients to get early and accurate diagnosis, so that they can make lifestyle adjustments, and receive correct treatment quickly. Discussions with patients, clinicians and charity organisations identified a huge unmet market need in this area, and indicated that ESP test would be a game changer for early and accurate diagnosis of these disorders.Innovate UK are supporting our new company 'ESP Diagnostics Ltd', by helping to further develop the ESP test. This will be so that the ESP test can be used for Parkinson's and DLB patients who are enrolled in clinical trials of new treatments, and eventually using ESP as part of clinical diagnosis for Parkinson's and DLB in hospitals in the UK and globally.