The development of novel biomarkers for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using structural and functional neuroimaging

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K19487
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokushima
• Principal Investigator: SAKO Wataru 徳島大学, 病院, 特任助教 (60581155)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 筋萎縮性側索硬化症 / バイオマーカー / MRI / fMRI / DTI

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The development of objective biomarkers for amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is essential for accurate clinical trials. We hypothesized that structural and functional neuroimagings could be novel biomarkers for ALS. A reduced value of amplitude of low frequency fluctuation was found in the sensorimotor cortex in ALS using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Fractional anisotropy in the supplementary motor area was reported to correlate with both disease duration and severity using structural MRI. Furthermore, MR spectroscopy revealed a correlation between N-acetyl aspartate/glutamate ratio and disease duration. These findings suggested that structural and functional neuroimagings might be helpful for recruitment and/or assessment of drug efficacy in clinical trials.

Free Research Field

医歯薬学