London Neurodegenerative Diseases Brain Bank

• Research type

  Research Tissue Bank

• IRAS ID

  240674

• Research summary

  London Neurodegenerative Diseases Brain Bank

• REC name

  Wales REC 3

• REC reference

  18/WA/0206

• Date of REC Opinion

  27 Jun 2018

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion

• Data collection arrangements

  Samples of brain tissue, spinal cord tissue and cerebro-spinal fluid wil be collected and stored as formalin fixed or frozen samples. Consent is taken from the donor or next of kin for collection of tissue, storage and use for research. We encourage families to register their intent to donate with us and complete consent forms in advance. Consent is also taken to allow access to medical records and clinical details. All tissue samples and clinical information is collected post-mortem.

• Research programme

  The Brain Bank acts as a resource for the Neuroscience, Neuropathology, Neurodegeneration, Neurooncology, Molecular Biology, Neurobiology, Neurodevelopment and gene expression studies.\nDiseases investigated will include Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Motor Neurone Disease, Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, Battens disease, Autism Spectrum, CNS tumours, Parkinsons Disease and head injury. [COVID-19 amendment 06/05/2020] Our current tissue bank ethical approval covers a broad range of neurological and psychiatric conditions but we seek specific approval here to ensure viral diseases are covered and due to the slightly different way the cases would be\nconsented and enter the bank. There are increasing reports of patients with COVID-19 showing neurological symptoms - loss of smell and/or taste are commonly reported and there are a number of reports of encephalitis and long-term neurological consequences. It is therefore important to understand the involvement of the central nervous system in this disease, whether the virus is entering the brain (as suggested by a recent publication comparing COVID-19 to previous similar viruses)\nand whether this may affect respiratory and cardiac regulation. We have a collaboration with pathologists working at Imperial Healthcare NHS trust who are carrying out post-mortem investigations on patients dying with COVID-19 at the Nightingale hospital - consent is taken for the post-mortem, collection of small brain tissue samples and their use in ethically approved research. We would like approval to accept these samples into the brain bank in the same way as we currently accept Coroner’s cases (using the consent for hospital post-mortem form instead of the full brain bank consent - as agreed with the HTA for Coroner’s cases in order to prevent additional paperwork/distress to the family). These samples would be sent to us pseudo-anonymised by the Imperial team and would be used for internal research to establish the neuropathology and viral invasion associated with this disease, as well as forming part of the tissue bank collection - undergoing the same tissue request approval process before release to external researchers.

• Storage license

  12293

• RTBTitle

  London Neurodegenerative Diseases Brain Bank

• Establishment organisation

  Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London

• Establishment organisation address

  De Crespigny Park

  London

  SE5 8AF