MAINSTREAM Project

FRRB Project 3430931 - A Multimodal Approach for Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Progressive Aphasia

The Coordinator of the project is Ente Morale Provincia Lombardo Veneta dell’Ordine Ospedaliero di S. Giovanni di Dio detto dei Fatebenefratelli. The Lead Principal Investigator of the project is Dr. Maria Cotelli.

PROJECT SUMMARY

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a syndrome due to different neurodegenerative disorders selectively disrupting language functions. PPA specialist care is underdeveloped. There are very few specialists (neurologists, psychiatrists, neuropsychologists and speech therapists) and few hospitals- or community-based services dedicated to diagnosis and continuing care. Currently, healthcare systems struggle to provide adequate coverage of diagnostic services, and care is too often fragmented, uncoordinated, and unresponsive to the needs of people with PPA and their families. Recently attention has been gained by digital-health technologies, such immunoassay analyzer and high-field MRI, the most promising approaches to increase our understanding of neurodegeneration, and by new non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) that allow a personalized treatment approach. Our goal is to develop a new diagnostic and treatment approach in PPA in which the regional secondary care centers participating in this project should be the hub of a regional network. The MAINSTREAM looks forward to [A] improving knowledge about the biological mechanisms involved in the neurodegeneration processes of PPA to enable early diagnosis (WP1 Detection and diagnosis); [B] introduce and evaluate therapeutic innovation such as tDCS coupled with language therapy in rehabilitation settings (WP2 Early Treatment; WP3 Telerehabilitation; WP4 Real-world care).