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Workshop Agenda

BIOMARKERS OF NEUROINFLAMMATION: A WORKSHOP

March 20 and 21, 2017

National Academy of Sciences Building
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW | Washington, DC

Background: Innate and adaptive immunities have become very important areas of investigation for psychiatric disorders, neurological disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, and neurodegeneration resulting from traumatic brain injury (TBI). For example, compelling genetic and other biological data are demonstrating critical roles of innate and adaptive immunity in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis. Several conferences and meetings are being held in this hot area, but it is not clear how best to translate recent findings to therapeutics; developing biomarkers that can be validated and used in clinical development and regulatory decision making is a critical step in this process. Many efforts are already under way to identify biomarkers of neuroinflammation, including biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood, as well as positron emission tomography imaging agents for targets such as translocator protein. Given the intense activity in academic research and private-sector settings and across many nervous system disorders, there is an opportunity to take stock of current knowledge, provide a venue for coordination, and identify potential opportunities to advance work in this domain. This public workshop will bring together key stakeholders from government, academia, industry, and disease-focused organizations to explore and ad-

vance efforts to identify biomarkers of neuroinflammation that can be validated and used in clinical development and regulatory decision making.

Workshop Objectives:

• Provide an overview of current knowledge on the role of neuroinflammation in nervous system disorders—including psychiatric and neurological disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, and neurodegeneration resulting from TBI—discuss the various definitions of neuroinflammation in use across the field, and the contribution of the peripheral and central nervous system (CNS) innate immune systems to normal brain function and disease pathophysiology.
• Explore the state of the science of neuroinflammation biomarkers and research needed to enable the use of these biomarkers at the individual level. Do any biomarkers undergoing development/validation implicate glia, neurons, immune cells, and/or endothelial cells? Should these be deployed singly or in combination, and where are the gaps in current approaches?
• Facilitate coordination among consortia and companies that are developing biomarkers of neuroinflammation. How might a study be designed to establish the disease relevance or drug-development utility of a neuroinflammation biomarker? Are such studies under way, and if not, why not? If not, what more do we need to facilitate these, and are there opportunities for “add-on” studies to current clinical trials?
• Highlight approaches, tools, and lessons learned that may apply across disorders and opportunities to advance the development of these biomarkers.

DAY 1: March 20, 2017, Room 120

Session Objectives:

• Provide brief background information on inflammatory processes and the role of neuroinflammation in adaptive repair and protection as well as pathophysiology of the brain.
• Survey current knowledge on the role of neuroinflammation in nervous system disorders—including psychiatric and neurological disorders, and neurodegeneration resulting from TBI—and common pathways for neuroinflammation across different disorders.
• Discuss desirable biomarker characteristics for quantitatively tracking neuroinflammation in disease progression and therapeutic interventions in different CNS disorders.

DAY 2: March 21, 2017, Room 125

Session Objectives:

• Discuss current consortia, academic, and private-sector efforts to identify and validate imaging biomarkers of neuroinflammation and share methodological approaches and lessons learned.
• Describe the use of neuroimaging biomarkers to identify changes in structure or tissue properties with respect to inflammation.
• Address key issues relevant across CNS disorders, such as the following:
  • How well do neuroimaging methods differentiate between adaptive and pathological neuroinflammatory processes?
  • Are current imaging agents useful in identifying specific patient populations?
  • What is the potential clinical utility of imaging agents and can they detect immediate and longer-term changes following therapeutic interventions?
• Describe the limitations of current imaging biomarkers of neuroinflammation and identify research and other potential next steps that would move the field forward.

Session Objectives:

• Discuss current consortia, academic, and private-sector efforts to identify and validate CSF and other fluid biomarkers of neuroinflammation and share methodological approaches and lessons learned.
• Address key issues relevant across CNS disorders, such as the following:
  • How well can CSF and other fluid biomarker detection methods differentiate between adaptive and pathological neuroinflammatory processes?
  • Are fluid biomarkers useful in identifying specific patient populations?
  • What is the potential clinical utility of fluid biomarkers and can they detect immediate and longer-term changes following therapeutic interventions?
  • How reliable are peripheral biomarkers as indicators of neuroinflammation?

• Describe the limitations of current fluid biomarkers of neuroinflammation and identify research and other potential next steps that would move the field forward.
• Explore the relationship between fluid and imaging biomarkers.

Session Objectives:

• Highlight key themes from the workshop.
• Discuss approaches, tools, and lessons learned that may apply across disorders and opportunities to advance the development of these biomarkers.
• Identify specific barriers and opportunities for increased coordinating among ongoing efforts in academia, the private sector, and consortia.
• Brainstorm potential collaborative projects that could be submitted through the Biomarkers Consortium or other current or planned mechanisms.
• Consider potential regulatory issues for biomarkers of neuroinflammation as research, development, and validation move forward.

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