Window into the Brain

ZelosDx has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project from the National Science Foundation, and aims to make use of the finding that debris-loaded cells can reenter the blood stream from the brain. This will be accomplished by developing technologies, including instrumentation, to capture and quantify these phagocytes from small amounts of blood (e.g. finger prick), to identify the specific cell types involved, and assay their brain-specific biomarker content. This approach will provide additional and completely novel diagnostic information. Since the normal protein turnover affects the brain as well, blood samples from cognitively normal donors will be tested to establish a baseline concentration of these biomarker-carrying phagocytes and their cargo. It is anticipated that changes of this baseline resulting from concussions, onset of dementia, brain tumors or neurologic disease, can be detected early, thereby allowing for timely intervention.

ZelosDx was the first to produce evidence that phagocytic cells carrying brain biomarkers re-enter the blood circulation where they can be easily obtained through a blood sample. These brain biomarkers can be detected in peripheral blood, not only in patients with neurologic disease, but even in healthy donors.

Peripheral blood monocytes provide a novel enriched source of brain-derived biomarkers. Since phagocytes in the blood are short lived, their content of brain specific debris is an indicator of recent damage and may be used as a marker of active neurodegeneration. Hence it may be viewed as a type of brain biopsy providing information about pathological changes in the brain. 

ZelosDx has completed three first-generation research assays ready for testing. ZelosDx has termed this approach Window into the Brain(TM), for which it has been granted patent protection in the US, Canada, and Europe.