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Saturday, 8 February, 2025
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World’s largest protein study to revolutionise cancer, dementia tests

The world’s largest study of proteins circulating the human body will launch in the UK this month, with tens of millions of pounds in investment from companies like Pfizer, J&J, GSK and AstraZeneca.

The project could revolutionise disease detection, paving the way for simple blood tests to identify conditions like cancer and dementia years before traditional diagnoses, reports The Independent.

The goal of the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project is to unravel the complex interplay of genes, lifestyle, and environment in disease development, and hopefully, for blood tests to be created that can diagnose autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease faster and more accurately.

Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins, analysing their role in disease and how their structure and function cause illnesses.

The new project is an expansion of a revolutionary pilot programme that published data on almost 3 000 proteins from blood samples of 54 000 UK Biobank participants.

The pilot data have already allowed researchers to identify elevated proteins in patients who go on to develop dementia up to a decade before diagnosis, and seven years before the diagnosis of certain cancers.

Professor Sir Rory Collins, principal investigator and chief executive of UK Biobank, said: “The data collected in the study will allow scientists worldwide to conduct health-related research, exploring how lifestyle, environment and genetics lead through proteins to some people developing particular diseases, while others do not.

“We can then look at ways to prevent those conditions before they develop.”

Backed by a consortium of 14 pharmaceutical firms, the plan is to measure up to 5 400 proteins from 600 000 blood samples.

This includes samples taken 15 to 20 years ago, when the UK Biobank study started, from 500 000 people in their early 40s to late 60s, as well as second samples taken from 100 000 UK Biobank volunteers 10 to 15 years later.

Professor Naomi Allen, chief scientist at UK Biobank, said: “This is hugely valuable, because it will enable researchers to see how changes in protein levels within individuals over mid to late-life can influence the development of a whole range of different diseases.

“It will accelerate research into the causes of disease and the development of new treatments that target specific proteins associated with those diseases.”

Having data on protein levels will provide a more complete picture of how genes, lifestyle, exposure to environment cause disease through changes in proteins, she added.

“So it adds a crucial piece in the jigsaw for scientists to figure out how disease develops, and gives us firm clues on what we can do to prevent and treat it.”

The pilot data are already showing that specific proteins are elevated in people who go on to develop many different types of cancers up to seven years before a clinical diagnosis is made, and for dementia, up to 10 years before clinical diagnosis is made.

“It really might be possible to develop simple blood tests that can detect disease much earlier than currently exists,” she told The Independent.

“For example, with dementia, if we had a blood test measuring this handful of proteins that are specifically elevated in those who later develop Alzheimer’s disease, they would then benefit from taking new drugs that are specifically designed to treat early stage disease.

“Data from the pilot study have shown that specific proteins are substantially elevated people with autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease and so on.”

Allen said evidence from the pilot had also highlighted how some drugs can be repurposed to treat other conditions.

“Some proteins that are important for immunity are related to developing a range of psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder and so on,” she added.

“And given there are drugs already available that specifically target some of these proteins used for other conditions, it presents a real opportunity for repurposing the meds for these neuropsychiatric conditions.

“The same has been shown for some chemotherapy drugs, in that some proteins associated with specific cancers already map on to existing chemotherapy drugs used for other cancer types.”

Millions of pounds in investment are being provided by the  pharma, firms, and will initially support scientists to measure protein levels from the 300 000 samples – expected to take about 12 months – with these data made available to UK Biobank-approved researchers in staggered releases from 2026.

Dr Chris Whelan, director of neuroscience, data science and digital health at Johnson & Johnson innovative medicine and Pharma Proteomics Project lead, said: “We’re hoping that as further groups see the value of this project, we will get funding to do all 600 000 – I’m quite confident we will reach that goal.”

The full dataset is expected to be added to the UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform by 2027.

 

The Independent article – Largest ever protein study set to revolutionise cancer and dementia tests (Open access)

 

See more from MedicalBrief archives:

 

Proteins in blood could give early cancer warning

 

Scientists ID proteins that could predict dementia – US-China study

 

New UK institute seeks to detect early cell changes before cancer

 

Alzheimer’s blood test scores 90% accuracy in Swedish study

 

Blood test could ID unwitting TB carriers – global study

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