Neurophet strives to be first mover in fight against Alzheimer’s

Neurophet Inc., a South Korean startup developing artificial intelligence-powered medical solutions for brain diseases, is striving to make a breakthrough in treatments of Alzheimer’s disease with its cutting-edge technology.

“We have developed AI analysis technology that can detect side effects of Alzheimer’s disease treatments with a microhemorrhage diagnosis,” Bin Joon-gil, the chief executive officer of Neurophet, said in an interview with The Korea Economic Daily on Tuesday. “We are the first mover (in the development of this technology) in the world.”

The Korean AI startup plans to roll out this new AI analysis program in mid-2024 and team up with the multinational pharmaceutical company that has developed the Alzheimer’s drug to market its AI analysis tool in overseas markets.

Beta-amyloid clumps and abnormal tau protein accumulation in the brain are known to be the main cause of Alzheimer’s, the most prevalent cause of dementia in the elderly.

Pharmaceutical companies worldwide have been actively researching and developing treatments for Alzheimer’s and the recently approved drug aims to reduce abnormal accumulation of amyloid-beta protein in the brain to slow the brain disease.

But the anti-amyloid therapy can come with a serious side effect that causes cerebral vasogenic edema, or brain swelling, during the process of clearing the toxic amyloid beta protein.

Neurophet has developed AI software that can analyze and detect such side effects in Alzheimer’s therapies, using its flagship AI analysis technologies, Neurophet AQUA and Neurophet SCALE PET.

A BREAKTHROUGH IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Neurophet AQUA is a brain MRI analysis software that analyzes brain atrophy and white matter hyperintensities (WHM) observed in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Neurophet SCALE PET is an AI-based positron emission tomography (PET) image analysis program that quantifies PET tracer bindings automatically.

To prevent the anti-amyloid drug’s side effects, it is important to first check whether there is any microhemorrhage in the brain caused by increased amyloid beta-peptide deposition on the cerebral cortex through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), said Bin.

Neurophet is developing the technology to diagnose microhemorrhage, using its AI technology, and its technology has proved to significantly improve the accuracy of brain imaging analysis and reduce the time for analysis, said Bin.

The Korean startup founded in 2016 is already in talks with multinational pharmaceutical companies leading the development of Alzheimer’s disease treatments to form partnerships.

It is also working on the development of an AI program that can predict amyloid beta-peptide deposition in the future with only an MRI analysis, the company said.

Neurophet is currently carrying out the so-called ATNV project, a national research project funded by the Korea Dementia Research Center, with its AQUA and SCALE PET programs, to find the types and stages of dementia by quantifying Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers.

The Korean startup expects its ATNV project to lead to a breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease treatments, the CEO said.

It obtained a medical device certification for SCALE PET from the Health Sciences Authority of Singapore in December last year after winning certifications from Korea, the United States and Japan earlier. AQUA also has received the European CE mark.

Write to Hyun-Ah Oh at 5hyun@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.