Neuronal Activity Imaging System

Background

Neurodegenerative disorders are a leading cause of disability, dependence, and are a major public health problem affecting more than 44 million people worldwide and costing billions of dollars to healthcare systems across the globe. The correlations between clinical manifestations of neurodegenerative disease, the underlying neuropathology, and changes in neuronal activity are an intense area of research to both identify critical biological pathways important in disease and to measure the impact of potential interventions.

Imaging is not only a powerful tool to detect changes in neuronal structures, but also to detect and localize changes in neuronal activity that occurs with neurodegenerative disease. Neuronal activity consumes large amounts of glucose and oxygen, both of which are used for neuronal imaging. Glucose consumption can be measured using the radionuclide tracer 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in PET imaging. Localized or global disturbances in glucose uptake are observed in several neurodegenerative disorders.

Alternatively, functional MRI (fMRI) can be used to measure blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast in tissues like the brain, where changes in deoxyhemoglobin concentration correlate with neuronal activity. Compared to FDG-PET, fMRI is widely available, remarkably less expensive, does not require injection of radiotracers, and has no ionizing radiation exposure for patients. In addition, fMRI is sensitive to the dynamics of neuronal activity rather than providing a static picture of metabolism as acquired in FDG-PET.

Technology Overview

Resting fMRI imaging using BOLD contrast provides a signal reflecting regional deoxy-hemoglobin concentration. While the relative amounts of oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin change with neuronal activity, the fMRI signal also contains information about blood flow, the vasculature, and underlying movement of the subject.

Scientists at The University of Western Ontario have created a method to process resting-state fMRI signals into different components and then use a machine-learning algorithm to classify those components as associated with either healthy normal activity, or with pathology or disease, or with noise or artifacts. The fMRI brain activity maps created using signals associated with normal and disease or pathology-related brain function were found to correlate with those created by 18F-FDG-PET, while providing more specific details about brain function that offers advantages (such as sensitivity and specificity) beyond those provided by PET imaging techniques.

Benefits

fMRI Brain Activity Maps:

• Use no ionizing ration
• A radioactive tracer is not required
• Uses resting state fMRI with its higher spatial and temporal resolution
• Allows for the creation of fMRI neuronal activity maps associated with either normal activity or that associated with disease or a specific pathology
• Could offer early detection of changes in brain activity associated with disease (Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, etc.)

Applications

This method may have extensive clinical applications to precisely localize normal and abnormal brain activity associated with early pathological alterations arising from diverse neurodegenerative conditions or other brain disorders. This method may also be useful to monitor interventions for diverse neurodegenerative conditions.

Opportunity

• Research and development partnerships
• Licensing and commercialization partnerships