Diagnostics and treatment options that are under development for neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs) are based on detecting accumulation of pathological proteins (such as beta-amyloid) and early clinical symptoms (mild cognitive impairment, MCI). Problematically, a substantial proportion of elderly healthy individuals who do not have dementia may also show protein accumulation in their brain with concomitant cerebrospinal fluid biomarker alterations. Furthermore, not all individuals with MCI eventually develop a neurodegenerative disorder. Hence, new approaches are needed in the diagnostics, prognostics, treatment, and monitoring of treatment efficacy in NDDs. Disturbances in the neurotransmitter systems (NTS) are known to be the first detectable changes in NDDs, and these changes occur before irreversible brain atrophy. Today, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) offers possibilities to conveniently measure the NTS changes. Moreover, our previous studies show that these changes can be modified in the brain of Alzheimer’s disease patients by using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). This project aims to solve challenges in the early detection and prognostics of NDDs by combining TMS measurements, novel fluid biomarkers, and global analyses of brain activity. The project is expected to provide new tools for early and personalized NDD diagnosis and enable accurate patient selection for therapeutic studies. Furthermore, we aim to prove tACS as a novel treatment approach for NDDs.

2024