Digital biomarker platform for early and differential diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease

BrainTale has been developing non-invasive, accessible, effective and clinically validated measurement and prediction tools for patients suffering from brain diseases

BrainTale, a medtech deciphering white matter to enable better brain care, presented preliminary results demonstrating the effectiveness of its digital biomarker platform for the early and differential diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. Results were presented during the European Academy of Neurology (Budapest, July 1 – 4, 2023) and the World Parkinson congress (Barcelona, July 4 – 7, 2023). Vincent Perlbarg, co-founder, scientific director and president of BrainTale, has presented the results showing the relevance of BrainTale’s digital biomarker platform for the care of patients suffering from the disease and the development of new therapies.

White matter, which represents 60% to 80% of the human brain, plays a key role in its proper functioning, development, and ageing, whether normal or pathological. Since its creation in 2018, BrainTale has been developing non-invasive, accessible, effective and clinically validated measurement and prediction tools for patients suffering from brain diseases.

Affecting around 8.5 million people worldwide, the incidence of Parkinson’s disease continues to rise and is still diagnosed far too late to effectively slow its progression, despite white matter lesions being identifiable at an early stage, particularly in the basal ganglia responsible for initiating and harmonising muscle movements.

The results were presented from July 1-4th during EAN and on Thursday, July 6th with a poster entitled “Evaluation of a clinically validated digital platform to provide Diffusion MRI biomarkers in Parkinsonian syndrome”. The prospectively acquired data from 81 subjects (46 subjects with Parkinson’s disease [PD], 18 subjects suffering from tauopathy [PSP], 10 subjects with ⍺-synucleinopathy [(MSAc] and 7 subjects with multiple system atrophy with phenotypes [MSAp]) were studied together with the team of Professor Stéphane Lehéricy, head of the Neuroradiology department at the Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris Region Greater Hospitals, France).

The results demonstrated the ability of differentiating patients’ population based on statistically different (p<0.05) white matter quantification assessments for the different subject categories. Main outputs were as follows: decreased anisotropy fraction (AF) between the MSAc and PSP groups compared to the PD group and increased radial diffusivity (RD) between the MSAc group compared to the PD group.

These initial results obtained in patients with Parkinson’s syndromes monitored prospectively confirm the value of these biomarkers for differentiating tremor aetiologies. In the long term, this could lead to improved management of such patients, particularly when symptoms are equivocal

Prof. Stéphane Lehéricy, Head of the Neuroradiology Department, Paris Region Greater Hospitals, France

These preliminary data highlight the relevance and sensitivity of BrainTale’s white matter biomarkers to Parkinsonian syndromes, including early stages of Parkinson’s disease. It paves the way for the possibility of using those brain biomarkers not only for a reliable, non-invasive and early differential diagnosis of Parkinson’s syndromes, but also to help accelerate the development of new therapies. With the new version of the BrainTale-care biomarker platform available since February 2023, centres and partners equipped with BrainTale’s technology can now improve the care of these patients and help securing patients diagnosis.