"AN-EYE-4-DEMENTIA: Development of AN innovative intelligent EYE imaging solution for screening of DEMENTIA "

Dementia is a major burden on global healthcare systems. Currently, there are ~50 million people with dementia worldwide which is projected to increase to 152 million by 2050. The total cost of dementia care in the UK is projected to increase from £34.7 billion (2019) to £94.1 billion (2040). Proposed diagnostic criteria focuses on the prodromal disease stage, namely mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (or early dementia) which occurs prior to functional disability and overt Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Timely diagnosis of MCI is crucial for effective treatment and the prevention of progression. Due to the subtle onset of symptoms and gradual cognitive decline, diagnosis remains challenging. Unfortunately, existing clinical tests for AD are either slow, costly, invasive, or detect the disease at an advanced stage.

The cornea is the most densely innervated tissue in the human body and can be directly visualised with specialist equipment. Our team and others globally have demonstrated nerve loss and additional pathological features in the cornea in neurodegenerative diseases, thus demonstrating its role as a biomarker in MCI/AD. The current method to visualise corneal nerve is by corneal confocal microscopy (CCM). However, CCM is technical, requiring specialist skills and direct contact with the cornea with topical anaesthesia, which limits its ubiquitous acceptance. Multiple studies including our published data have demonstrated that artificial intelligence (AI) greatly improves the diagnostic utility of CCM (corneal) images for the diagnosis of diseases including MCI and AD with high sensitivity and specificity (>0.8-0.9). An objective, non-invasive, non-contact, rapid and readily accessible method to detect MCI and predict AD is required to improve the management and clinical outcomes of patients.

Our interdisciplinary team of engineers, scientists and clinicians are exceptionally well placed to develop a game-changing integrated diagnostic imaging...