Professor Chris Kipps from University Hospital Southampton and Professor Sumeet Mahajan from the University of Southampton are leading a study to investigate a new laser-based test that could detect different types of dementia early in the disease.
If successful, the test will help doctors rapidly identify which patients may be eligible for new drug treatments at a point when they are most likely to be effective.
The test works by profiling a ‘biochemical fingerprint' which experts believe can give an accurate diagnosis and help distinguish between different types of dementia.
The new technology, known as Multi-excitation Raman spectroscopy (MX-Raman), uses lasers to analyse the composition of a single drop of a bodily fluid – this can be blood, spinal fluid or mucus.
The lasers create tiny vibrations within the molecules that can be probed and provide a unique signal profile – called a spectrum – allowing scientists to examine the proteins, lipids, metabolites and other biomolecules present in the sample.
Different molecules vibrate in different ways and this profile represents the sample's biomolecular composition giving a ‘biochemical fingerprint' of the person's health and disease status.
The test can provide results in seconds and would be much cheaper than other diagnostic tests currently available. It could also be made available directly in a clinic setting.
Prof Kipps, consultant neurologist at University Hospital Southampton, said: ‘The slow progression of dementia, with a long pre-symptomatic phase, presents a formidable challenge in early diagnosis.
‘This laser-based technique could change the way we approach dementia diagnosis and may significantly improve affordability and efficiency of current biomarker analysis. It represents a breakthrough in medical technology.'
Prof Mahajan, professor of molecular biophotonics and imaging at the University of Southampton, added: ‘There is an urgent unmet clinical need for more discriminatory, efficient and cost-effective solutions.
‘Our holistic MX-Raman technique is uniquely equipped to address these challenges and we want to see this technology lead to vastly improved patient outcomes.'
Initial results suggest the test can accurately detect dementia with an average accuracy of more than 93% when diagnosing Alzheimer's disease.
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