The biotechnology company Neuron Bio, based in Granada, yesterday got ahead of the field of research and healthcare when they published some news about the registration of a patent for the diagnosis of Alzheimer‘s, which is a significant advance against this disease as it is a noninvasive method for the patient and it is also faster and easier because it is done through a blood test.
The new method, based on the identification of a number of biomarkers allows to reliably diagnose Alzheimer’s patients and also anticipate its progression before clinical signs of dementia occur, improving the efficiency of current methods. The patent achieves better results than similar tools under development developed by some significant research centers (Stanford University, King’s College, University of Rochester or Australian consortium AIBL).
This new European patent application, which was registered last March 11 at the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office has been possible thanks to the research team Neuron Bio and active participation of Spanish research staff referral hospitals, as the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital and Clinic of Granada, or the Ramón y Cajal and La Paz in Madrid. As the President of Neuron Bio, Dr. Fernando Valdivieso, said: «this patent represents one of the major milestones of the company in the work we have been developing over the last 10 years to prevent, diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s, allowing a clear advance over current methods using biomarkers for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases.»
This new method will facilitate the clinical diagnosis of dementia because until now the only alternative offered was an analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid, performing an uncomfortable lumbar puncture to the patient. General Director of Neuron Bio, Dr. Javier Burgos said yesterday that «this tool will not only be useful for clinical practice, but also will be invaluable for large pharmaceutical companies with compounds in clinical phases for Alzheimer’s disease, as it will allow the identification of the perfect candidates who can participate in trials reducing costs and assess their effect on the course of the disease, thereby increasing the likelihood of success of new treatments».
The project, in which the team of scientists and researchers from Neuron Bio have been working the past three years, has had the support of the CTA (Andalusian Technology Corporation) and also had the financial support of the Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment of the Junta de Andalucía and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Government of Spain.
Irean Navas
