Page 36 - Shimadzu Journal vol.8 Issue2

Latest topics 3

Research on Alzheimer´s

Early detection of Alzheimer’s biomarkers

Shimadzu, one of the world leaders in analytical instrumenta- opening the door to new advancements in research, identifying
tion, introduces the collaboration with the Clinical Laboratory suitable candidates for clinical trials and helping pharmaceutical
and Proteomics Platform of the CHU University Hospital of company to test candidate drugs.
Montpellier, France. With the team of professors Sylvain Lehmann
and Christophe Hirtz, they focus on MS (mass spectrometry) based The blood analysis works using a combination of immunoprecipita-
blood amyloid-beta analysis for early screening of amyloid-posi- tion and MALDI‑TOF mass spectrometry (IP‑MS). This technique
tive subjects. The cooperation plans to conduct a joint cohort was first established by a team of scientists including Shimadzu’s
study from the Memory Resources and Research Center (Professor Koichi Tanaka, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in
Audrey Gabelle) to evaluate whether this simple blood analysis 2002 for developing a method for mass spectrometric analysis of
method enables early and accurate prediction of amyloid pathol- biological macromolecules.
ogy in the brain with an easy-to-acquire blood sample.
The CHU of Montpellier is part of Shimadzu’s European
Unlike conventional positron emission tomography (PET) imaging Innovation Center (EUIC) program. The EUIC merges the cut-
and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing methods, Shimadzu’s blood ting-edge analytical technologies of Shimadzu with game‑changing
amyloid-beta analysis method is minimally invasive and suitable topics and expertise in markets and science covered by opinion
for large-scale deployment. It is a new-approach blood analysis leaders, strategic thinkers and scientific experts in order to create
capable of being used for the research of detecting abnormal amy- new solutions for tomorrow.
loid-beta concentration which can be a marker for amyloid pathol-
ogy in the brain.
For more scientific background about
Shimadzu’s blood amyloid-beta analysis:
Opening the door to new advancements
Nature: A. Nakamura, N. Kaneko et. al., “High performance plasma am-
in research yloid-β biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease” doi: 10.1038/nature 2545
These new blood‑based biomarkers were discovered in 2014 by
Shimadzu and the Japanese National Center for Geriatrics and
Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Support
Gerontology (NCGG). Although the screening analysis is Research https://www.shimadzu.com/advanced-healthcare/case/03.html
Use Only and cannot diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, it is ideal for

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