Funded by the European Union with a budget of EUR8 million distributed over 4 ½ years, PREDICTFTD brings together a consortium of 15 partners from institutions across Europe, including leading neurologists, data scientists and health economists.
FTD refers to a group of brain diseases that lead to changes in personality and behaviour, difficulties with language, as well as problems with movement and executive function. PREDICTFTD aims to transform the early diagnosis of Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), by validating a set of fluid biomarkers and developing a web-based tool which will helps clinicians to diagnose FTD correctly at an early disease stage, also predicting the underlying pathology. This tool will leverage cutting-edge innovations from biomarker research as well as AI-assisted multi-modal algorithms, using data from blood and CSF samples, nasal swabs and brain MRIs to establish a robust diagnosis. One of the limitations of current biomarker research is that FTD is relatively rare and therefore local FTD cohorts are small. To circumvent this challenge, PREDICTFTD brings together 11 dementia and FTD cohorts from 7 clinical centers, in 5 countries across Europe. These cohorts will provide retrospective and prospective longitudinal clinical and imaging data, as well as blood, CSF and nasal swab samples.
About 15-30% of people with FTD have a family history of the condition, often linked to genetic mutations. Identifying these mutations helps confirm a diagnosis of familial FTD. However, for most cases, known as sporadic FTD, there are no reliable, diagnostic biomarkers. This leads to significant diagnostic delays, with an average gap of 3.6 years from symptom onset to diagnosis.
PREDICTFTD is tackling these challenges head-on, aiming to improve early and accurate diagnosis and predict the underlying pathology for FTD. Advancing biomarker research offers hope for transforming how we diagnose and treat FTD, ultimately bringing us closer to a future where patients could benefit from personalised, targeted, disease-modifying therapies.
Representatives of Alzheimer Europe involved in the project:
