Diagnostic Program

Currently there is no efficient diagnostic test that detects early onset of Alzheimer´s Disease. Existing clinical diagnosis includes cognitive tests to confirm dementia, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT) scans to exclude other dementias. Unfortunately, clinical diagnosis is often made too late and does not always correlate with post-mortem diagnosis.

A new diagnostic tool will be beneficial to detect the disease earlier, before the symptoms are too advanced so a treatment can be started early in disease onset. A good diagnostic assay should also help to better evaluate the effect of new treatments in clinical trials as well as correlate better with existing pathological and memory markers.

AC Immune´s Diagnostic Program pursues two ways of detecting the disease. The highly specific antibodies against Abeta and pTau are developed for diagnostics in blood and cerebrospinal fluid. AC Immune also evaluates a highly sensitive small molecule ligand for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with the potential to be active in animals and humans.

The Diagnostic Program is important because it can accelerate preclinical and clinical development and potentially provides an early revenue stream.