NanoNu marker: Nano-Chemical Biomarkers of Molecular Mechanisms and Nutritional Factors in Cognitive Ageing and Neurodegeneration

Observational studies indirectly evidenced specific dietary regimes having protective effects against these diseases, and antibody-based pharmacotherapies may deplete toxic amyloid aggregates underlying neurodegeneration from brains of patients, albeit with modest effects. Accordingly, an effective disease-modifying treatment nor cure is yet available. This knowledge gap is largely related to existing technological limits in characterizing at the sub-micron and nanoscale level complex human biofluids and tissues of aged and diseased individuals, which are rich in heterogeneous nanoscale-sized protein amyloid aggregates. NanoNU-Marker will impact research in cognitive ageing and neurodegeneration by developing, applying, and combining four emerging technologies: microfluidic spray, optical photothermal spectroscopy, infrared nano-spectroscopy, and artificial intelligence. These technologies will empower investigating the chemical-structural state of human biofluids and brain tissue from the micron- to the nano-scale, to unravel abundance and structural-chemical properties of amyloid species. The project will investigate a unique set of three cohorts of older-adults having: aged healthy (WP-1); subjective cognitive decline (WP-2); mild cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration (WP-3); these will be analysed in relationship to nutritional/lifestyle factors (WP-4). Overall, NanoNU-Marker will leverage emerging experimental and digital technologies to study human biofluids and biopsies with unprecedented sensitivity, to identify and characterise nano-chemical biomarkers for pre-clinical disease diagnosis, and to understand how molecular basis of amyloid formation and accompanying nutritional/lifestyle factors may reduce the socioeconomic burden of dementia and neurodegeneration.