Biomarker identification
In order to develop treatments and effective interventions for people with FTD, tests need to be developed for those with initial symptoms of FTD, that can identify the type of underlying cellular changes occurring in the brain at that time. At present such changes can not be predicted by either the type of symptoms a person has, or by their genetic profile, only by a brain autopsy.
Our goal is to develop an easily identifiable biological marker (a biomarker) that will be a beacon for the type of cellular changes occurring in each patient with FTD. In order to do this we will be screening either blood or cerebrospinal fluid from people with FTD for a broad array of cellular markers such as those proteins found accumulated in brain cells (refer to section on neuropathology), and other molecules associated with cell degeneration.
Our research group has shown that different types of cellular changes are associated with different patterns of brain inflammation. Therefore, in addition, we will be examining inflammatory molecules (such as cytokines) in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid as well as using advanced brain imaging technology (diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET)) to examine the distribution of inflammatory changes in the brain in those with FTD.
