Principal Investigator:
Ching-Hwa Sung, Professor of Cell Biology in Ophthalmology
Background & Unmet Need
- Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting 10 million people worldwide
- The presence of Lewy bodies, which are made up by aggregated a-synuclein protein deposits, are a hallmark of PD
- Emerging diagnostics for PD measure levels of a-synuclein in spinal fluid, which is collected from invasive lumbar punctures
- Lumbar punctures can be painful and put patients at risk for spinal fluid leakage, prolonged headaches, back pain, and bleeding
- It is currently difficult to accurately measure pathological a-synuclein aggregates in living patients using non-invasive methods
- Unmet Need: Noninvasive biomarkers for early assessment of Parkinson's disease
Technology Overview
- The Technology: A method for early detection of Parkinson’s Disease using fundus imaging to measure autofluorescent microglia in the retina
- The Discovery: In a mouse model of PD, retinal microglia engulf lipofuscins from rod cells and express phospho-a-synuclein-positive inclusions and bright autofluorescence
- These microglia can be seen via fundus autofluorescence imaging or confocal laser scanning ophthalmoscopy as bright foci
- The emergence of autofluorescent foci temporally coincides with onset and progression of disease as well as Lewy body deposition
- PoC Data: In a mouse model of PD, diseased mice had significantly more autofluorescent foci in the eye (p<0.001) than control mice at 2 months old
- The number of autofluorescent foci increases over time in diseased mice, matching retinal degeneration, a measure of PD disease progression
Technology Applications
- Early, noninvasive detection of Parkinson’s Disease
- Method of monitoring PD progression over time
- Method of assessing treatment efficacy during treatment and clinical trials
- Diagnosis of other neurodegenerative diseases with aggregated a-synuclein deposition in the eye, such as Lewy body dementia
Technology Advantages
- Noninvasive, unlike current diagnostics that utilize spinal taps or biopsies
- Measures actual levels of pathological a-synuclein inclusions, rather than amplifying the quantity, enabling more accurate assessment of the disease
- Increased autofluorescence correlates to disease progression, allowing for better assessment of the state of the disease or treatment efficacy
- More cost effective than methods requiring sampling and assays for protein or nucleic acid levels
Publications
Resources
Intellectual Property
Patents
- Provisional Filed
Cornell Reference
- 10740
Contact Information
For additional information please contact
Jeffrey James
Associate Director, Business Development and Licensing
Phone: (646) 962-4194
Email: jaj268@cornell.edu