There are three purposes to this post: (1) identify collaborators to brain storm projects on the usefulness and validation of plasma biomarkers (e.g., alpha synuclein) for the detection of PD, (2) understand if and how plasma biomarkers (or other biomarkers) are being integrated with Fox Insight participants, and (3) get input/advice from others on how to leverage Fox Insight for an NIH grant submission. I elaborate on all next.
(1) PPMI was recently used to support the alpha synuclein seeding application assay for the detection of PD, Breaking News: Parkinson's Disease Biomarker Found | Parkinson's Disease. This is exciting but it used spinal fluid. There is increasing acceptance for plasma biomarkers for AD/ADRD and there is ongoing plasma assay development and validation for alpha synuclein. I have a strong interest in using scalable biomarkers for detection of AD/ADRD and would be very eager to collaborate with others in this space, if interested.
(2) Related to number 1, has there been any progress on plasma biomarkers using Fox Insight participants? This might start to overlap with PDBP. However, I have a grant now that will use Quest labs to do blood draw on participants located across the country. This grant is focused on plasma biomarkers for AD/ADRD. You could envision a grant that will use Fox Insight and its participants to have them complete the online assessments + do a remote blood draw with the goal to identify plasma biomarkers for PD. Is Fox Insight used for recruitment for PDBP; how do these interact?
(3) Has anybody submitted a grant that proposed to use FI (e.g., data, for recruitment of participants)? If so, would love to hear about the process (e.g., approvals, letter of support) and how it went.
Thanks. And, as I wrote this post, not entirely sure if analyzing and reusing data is the most appropriate place. There’s a bit of brainstorming here.
(2) One roadblock I would see is adjusting the IRB retroactively; as Fox Insight is an online study, adding a blood draw element would require not only additional consent but an updated IRB. PDBP is run by NINDS and FI is run by MJFF with separate recruitment. There is a paper comparing some of the clinical data from these different cohorts that gives some information about what overlaps and what does not.
In terms of grants leveraging FI data, I know @fbbriggs has received one and I believe @hirotaka has, too.
Definitely think it would be great to see if others are interested in this topic to explore collaborations and then possible solutions – it is not impossible to recruit via Fox Insight but it is extremely uncommon. I believe @danieltds (and possibly @psaffie ?) have expressed interested in SAA in the past.
Another option might be to consider data from participants who are enrolled in both PPMI-Online and also PPMI Clinic. Looking quickly, there are 636 who fit that bill (so should have both biosample + survey data), though would have to look more deeply at which questionnaires they actually completed.
I am sorry but I don’t remember being funded for FI research. @jgottesman, what is the difference between PPMI-online and Fox Insight actually? They look very similar to me but does PPMI-online collect biosamples? I couldn’t find it mentioned in the protocol
Sorry @hirotaka , I think you are correct – you’ve worked a lot with the Fox Insight data but perhaps not directly as a named collaborator on a funded project. PPMI-Online + Fox Insight have similar SOAs but not entirely:
PPMI-O participants may also (though are not required to) participate in (or be invited to participate in) PPMI Clinical.
@malosco + @fbbriggs, would be great if you could share results of the brainstorm to see if others are interested as the idea coalesce and/or we are able to help identify other collaborators!
That is also a question I was asking myself, @hirotaka! I would like to know the differences between PPMI online and Fox Insight also!
@jgottesman, as for the interest in SAA, yeah, it definitely is important. This is one of the first biomarkers to have a good accuracy for the diagnosis of PD and some subtyping, however, I do not know how could I contribute to this endeavor in this moment. Nevertheless, I hope the idea sticks and goes forth!
I’m a bit unsure if I’ve got this right, but I’ve been thinking about the blood samples we’re collecting for genetic analysis in Pd patients. What if we considered including the measurement of SAA in the blood, on the same individuals? It could give us a broader understanding of each patient and possibly help us make our recruitment process more effective by using our resources wisely. What do you all think?