Update on the Paraytec AD Scanner project

Reach - a non-regulatory announcement

AIM: BRH

14 June 2021

Braveheart Investment Group plc

("Braveheart" or the "Group")

Update on the Paraytec AD Scanner project

Paraytec's grant funded project to deploy its ActiPix™ technology in the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis, working with a pan-European consortium of Karolinska Institute, Biomotif, Vrije University Medical Centre Amsterdam (VUMC) and MS Vision is progressing well. Prototype instruments are being built, to test blood for protein biomarkers. If successful, these instruments will be used by clinicians aiming to more accurately diagnose patients and monitor their treatment. 

Pooled plasma samples from AD patients and healthy individuals have been tested in the laboratory and produced good results. In the next month, VUMC will begin testing the system with plasma samples from individual AD patients, to assess the pre-clinical performance and correlation with clinical diagnosis.

The first fully assembled instrument, incorporating Paraytec's detector technology, has been produced by MS Vision and shipped to Karolinska Institute in Sweden for testing. The instrument uses capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF), together with ActiPix technology, to measure the level of protein biomarkers (abnormal proteoforms) in blood samples. If present, these biomarkers are indicative of the likely rate of mental decline for a given AD patient. This is important because such information could be used by clinicians in early diagnosis to differentiate AD patients from those with mild cognitive impairment, and also by researchers to help develop better drugs to counter this devastating disease. 

Research conducted by the Alzheimer's Society shows that, in 2019, there were over 850,000 people with dementia in the UK. The Society considers that more than 520,000 people in the UK have dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease and this figure is set to rise.

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/types-dementia/alzheimers-disease#content-start

The project is due to end in August 2021 and discussions regarding commercialisation are ongoing with system manufacturers who are already part of the project team.

During the project Paraytec has developed new cIEF analytical techniques which dramatically improve signal to noise ratios, far beyond those of competitor instrumentation. The Paraytec team believes this breakthrough will lead to new applications for its ActiPix technology, for example in the biopharmaceutical industry for quality control in manufacturing therapeutic antibodies.

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