The Virgen del Rocío leads research in Andalusia to improve the diagnosis of Alzheimer's
The Virgen del Rocío University Hospital (HUVR), belonging to the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) of the Ministry of the Presidency, Health and Emergencies of the Junta de Andalucía, leads a pioneering multicenter Andalusian study in the validation of the plasma biomarker p-tau217 for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's.
This project, which is part of the Andalusian multicentre research project ‘Personalised Medicine in Neurological Diseases through the Application of Biomarkers for the Improvement of Patient Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment’, involves the memory units of nine hospital areas in Andalusia.
In addition to the University Hospital Virgen del Rocío are the Virgen de Valme Hospital, Torrecárdenas Hospital (Almería), Jaén Hospital, Virgen de las Nieves Hospital (Granada), San Cecilio Hospital (Granada), Virgen de la Victoria Hospital (Málaga), Juan Ramón Jiménez Hospital (Huelva), and Reina Sofía Hospital (Córdoba).
As for the Alzheimer's Program, it is coordinated by Dr. Emilio Franco, director of the HUVR Memory Unit. Likewise, the Clinical Laboratory Service of the Virgen del Rocío, coordinated by doctors José Ángel Noval and Daniel Fatela, has studied the samples managed through the different nodes of the Biobank of the Public Health System of Andalusia.
"I believe that the determination of the biomarker p-tau217 in plasma will change the way of work with patients who consult for cognitive impairment, shortening and improving diagnostic accuracy, "explains Franco, who stresses that "this Andalusian study endorses the data on the diagnostic usefulness of the biomarker and allows us to have cut-off points adapted to our laboratories and our population. "Finally, he points out that "the incorporation of the test into healthcare will improve accessibility to an accurate diagnosis, reducing in many cases the performance of other more invasive or expensive tests. "
The results obtained demonstrate a high diagnostic utility of the p-tau217 prototype from Elecsys (Roche Diagnostics), which will facilitate the future incorporation of this plasma analysis into routine clinical practice in andalusian public hospitals.
This validation work represents a pioneering advance in the scientific field and has been published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, one of the most internationally prestigious scientific journals in this field.
Andalusian impulse
The project in which this study on the diagnosis of Alzheimer's is developed within the framework of the Andalusia-Roche Alliance in Precision Neurology, promoted by the Ministry of Health, Presidency and Emergencies and the IBIMA (Biomedical Research Institute of Malaga). It is a pioneering public-private initiative created to promote personalized medicine in Neurology.
This validates the joint use of biomarkers molecular, neuroimaging and neuropsychological. Thus, among its objectives is not only Alzheimer's, but also the diagnosis of Parkinson's and Multiple Sclerosis.
Regarding the clinical approach, this advance represents a decisive step towards a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease that is more accessible, faster and less invasive than current techniques, such as lumbar puncture or neuroimaging, opening the door to earlier detection and better therapeutic planning for patients.
On this point, the project has exceeded its initial objective by recruiting 357 patients in the Public Health System of Andalusia to investigate Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Multiple Sclerosis.