Research and screening platform for Alzheimer's and other chronic diseases

Summary Early diagnosis of chronic diseases makes possible early treatment initiationBloodstream miRNA panels are being pursued for screening and diagnosis of the most important chronic diseasesRecentlythere has been a particular interest in Alzheimer s diseaseADmiRNA panelsIf successfulthese panels may become part of regular medical check upsHowevertheir development and application is obstructed by the poor quantitative performance and complexity of available miRNA detection techniques such as reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reactionRT qPCRand sequencingHerewe propose the development of an accurate and simple platform for quantitative detection of miRNAs in blood that will accelerate the validation of miRNA panels and will be ideal for patient screeningWe will validate the new platform by studying a specific miRNA panel associated with ADWe will develop a highly quantitative method to measure concentration of circulating miRNA based on direct detectionwithout purification and without enzymatic reactionsThe method will be capable of highly quantitative measurements of miRNA in a variety of sample typesThe first aim focuses on developing a method to detecttargets directly in unpurified samplesThe second aim focuses on optimizing the quantitative performance of the assayas well as validating the assay with clinical samplesThis proposal will show that the new method can dramatically simplify and improve miRNA quantificationOur overall goal is to develop a powerful and flexible platform ideal for basic miRNA research and clinical diagnosisIn additionthe same platform will be useful to detect other targetssuch as messenger RNA and highly fragmented DNA with better quantitative performancefaster and easier to use than alternative methods