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CQDM, Brain Canada Foundation and the Ontario Brain Institute made the announcement at the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience.听鈥淭he Government of Canada is dedicated to helping increase our understanding of how the human brain works and how to best protect it and treat disorders of the brain and nervous system using innovative and unique solutions,鈥� said the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health. 鈥淲e are proud to support Brain Canada and its partners in fostering the very best Canadian neuroscience research and accelerating discoveries to improve the health and quality of life for Canadians who suffer from brain disease and mental disorders.鈥�

Two fo the three projects awarded to McGill are from BIC Principal Investigators:

The eye: a window to the brain - Jean-Paul Soucy

To date, Alzheimer鈥檚 disease remains incurable and can only be diagnosed once symptoms begin to manifest themselves via the presence of 尾-amyloid plaques (A脽) and tau strands in the brain. The difficulty in developing new drugs for this disease is largely due to the difficult and late diagnosis of the disease. The ability to diagnose Alzheimer鈥檚 disease at an early stage would afford a better understanding of its genesis in addition to radically transforming the design of clinical trials in order to develop new treatments. The eye provides a window to the brain through the retina, which may also have A脽 plaques in individuals suffering from Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. It is suggested that Alzheimer鈥檚 disease is detectable by a simple non-invasive analysis of the eye. Jean-Paul Soucy and his team believe that is so and will develop a retinal imaging platform using fluorescence combined with advanced imaging instruments to detect A脽 plaques in the retina of patients. This imaging platform will enable the detection and early diagnosis of the disease in at-risk patients which will facilitate the development of drugs to treat Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.

To successfully cross the blood-brain barrier Jean-Paul Soucy, Louis Collins, Gassan Massarweh

The blood-brain barrier protects the brain from potentially toxic compounds from the bloodstream, but also restricts access of therapeutic agents to the brain. The drug delivery to brain targets is seriously hampered by the tight walls of the cerebral blood vessels. One of the approaches being considered in order to cross the barrier uses the transport receptors in blood vessels that carry natural chemicals and nutrients necessary for proper brain function. The approach of the team is to use an antibody fragment that binds to transport receptor to carry, like a Trojan horse, a therapeutic payload through the barrier. Specifically, the drug will be chemically bonded or fused to the natural or modified blood-brain barrier carrier thereby gaining access to brain targets. The project is designed to demonstrate that a payload, in this case, a candidate treatment for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, can be effectively transported across the human blood-brain barrier.

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