Approved Research

Identification of cost-effective biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease

Lay summary

Major approaches to identify the presence of Alzheimers' Disease ( AD ) are mini-mental state examination(MMSE) and MRI of the brain currently.  However, patients in some area have

difficulties in accessing the expensive MRI facility. The number of the patients who can access

MRI facility  is increasing year by year. Thus the cost of MRI is also increasing. Therefore in order to accommodate the patients without MRI data and reduce the NHS cost for MRI scan there is a need to find a way to diagnose AD at a lower cost than currently experiencing.

Blood, urine and saliva are the cheap biomarkers and there are some reports on the correlation

between such biomarkers and the diagnosis of AD. This project makes best use of the vast

data available in UKBiobank to identify the key biomarkers for the diagnosis of the AD and develops a system which can use the information from the low-cost biomarkers and MMSE score to diagnose AD. The project outcome will lower the cost incurred on NHS system and give patients a faster diagnosis than currently experiencing.