The markers in neuropsychiatric disorders study (the MiND study): blood biomarkers to distinguish dementia from psychiatric disorders, and accessible technologies to enable global translation
D. Eratne1,2, C. Dang3, M. Kang1,2, D. Velakoulis1,2, The MiND Study Group
1The University of Melbourne, Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne, Australia, 2The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Neuropsychiatry Centre, Melbourne, Australia, 3The University of Melbourne, Department of General Practice, Melbourne, Australia
Background: Despite significant advances, delay to diagnosis of dementia and misdiagnosis is still common, which significant negative impacts for patients, their families, and healthcare systems and clinical trials. There remains a great need for simple and globally available via markers to improve timely and accurate dementia diagnosis and distinction from primary psychiatric disorders.
Aims & Objectives:
The Markers in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Study (The MiND Study) is investigating the diagnostic and wider utility of blood based biomarkers such as neurofilament light chain (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), phosphorylated tau (p-tau), as well as other markers, to improve timely and accurate diagnosis of dementia and distinction from primary psychiatric disorders (PPD). This in-progress study has expanded significantly, becoming a robust platform for Australian and international collaborations.
Method:
Participants have been recruited and blood samples collected across Australia. Longitudinal clinical/diagnostic, questionnaire, cognitive, and health utilisation data is collected. Second timepoint bloods (24 months) are now underway. Samples have been analysed for NfL, GFAP, p-tau217. Ongoing studies are underway investigating genomics, neuroimaging correlates, and qualitative studies.
Results:
Findings from this ongoing study will be presented. Over 1000 participants have been recruited from diverse specialist and community settings. Partnering with public and private pathology services, blood sample collection and storage processes have been developed across most of Australia. Findings thus far include CSF and plasma NfL reference ranges, strong diagnostic utility of blood and CSF NfL to distinguish dementia from PPD, ptau217 to distinguish Alzheimer from non-Alzheimer disease with very high accuracy, and high value placed on NfL testing by participants. Numerous collaborations and sub-studies have developed, investigating cognitive, neuroimaging, genomic markers.
Discussion & Conclusions:
The MiND Study is large biobank and platform supporting national and international collaborations, pioneering research to lead to clinical translation, with particular focus on clinical translation in to broad clinical settings, younger onset dementia, primary care settings, and non-AD and neurodegenerative mimics such as primary psychiatric disorders.
In sessions