In three medical papers presented at the American Academy of Neurology, Prenuvo’s AI-assisted research reveals vital link between lifestyle factors and brain volume changes, with link to abdominal visceral fat and midlife brain atrophy
San Francisco (August 10, 2023) - Prenuvo, the company pioneering proactive whole-body MRI imaging for the early detection of cancer and diseases, presented three AI-assisted research abstracts highlighting the significant correlation between lifestyle factors and brain volume changes. The studies, conducted on over 10,000 consenting anonymized Prenuvo patients, shed light on the crucial role of visceral abdominal fat in predicting midlife brain atrophy, underscoring the importance of managing visceral fat for long term brain health and offering hope for improving earlier interventions for cognitive decline.
Prenuvo’s groundbreaking findings were presented at the 2023 American Academy of Neurology conference alongside research collaborators from Saint John’s Health Center and The Pacific Neuroscience Institute. Prenuvo’s cutting-edge AI research is pivotal in understanding how lifestyle factors can be precursors to various diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia, as changes in brain volume have been linked to neurodegeneration. By comprehending this correlation, physicians and individuals can potentially understand disease progression earlier and intervene sooner.
“We are excited about the potential for AI to help us define the intricacies of the normal aging process,” said Sam Hashemi, Head of AI at Prenuvo. “Our unique research approach focuses on studying whole-body MRI imaging of healthy individuals, providing remarkable insights into interconnected relationships between organs and uncovering early disease progression in previously unseen ways.”
“Leveraging Prenuvo’s whole-body MRI imaging, we are able to make groundbreaking discoveries into cross-organ correlation between body biomarkers and the brain, ” said Dr. Raj Attariwala, Prenuvo Founding Radiologist, double board certified radiologist and nuclear medicine physician who also holds a PhD in engineering. “It is exciting to see the role that advanced imaging has in allowing us to discover previously inconspicuous relationships, contributing to early detection and potentially leading to the development of methods to maintain brain health.”
The key highlight from Prenuvo’s research is the discovery that deep learning-derived visceral abdominal fat can predict midlife brain atrophy in 7,507 individuals. Other key findings are as follows:
- Moderate to vigorous physical activity predicts brain volume: regular physical activity in 10,125 individuals has been linked to a reduced risk of dementia, while loss of brain volume as measured by Prenuvo’s MRI is a marker of neurodegeneration.
- Smoking history and higher pack years predict brain atrophy in 10,134 healthy individuals: Individuals with a history of smoking had lower normalized gray and white matter volumes compared to non-smokers. By adopting healthier habits and quitting smoking, individuals can mitigate the risk of brain degeneration and improve their cognitive outcomes.
By training AI models on a comprehensive corpus of whole-body MRI data, Prenuvo is investigating ways of quantification of various cross-organ biomarkers, including muscle and fat distribution. The analysis of this extensive dataset has revealed previously inconspicuous correlations between these biomarkers and brain volume changes.
“One implication of these advancements is that objective and quantifiable methods exist for tracking brain health and its related modifiers,” said Dr. Cyrus Raji MD, PhD, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
“The purpose of our study was to understand the correlation between lifestyle factors and brain health, said Somayeh Meysami MD, Assistant Professor of Neurosciences at Saint John’s Cancer Institute and Clinical Research Scientist at the Pacific Brain Health Center, Pacific Neuroscience Institute (PNI), “What we found is that factors such as visceral fat and smoking negatively influence brain structure while physical activity positively impacts brain health.”
About Prenuvo:Led by Founder and CEO Andrew Lacy and Founding Radiologist and biomedical engineer Dr. Raj Attariwala, Prenuvo makes MRI scanning for early detection of cancer, “silent killers” like aneurysms, and other diseases seamless and more widely accessible. Combining cutting-edge analysis technology with radiation-free and non-invasive full-body scans, Prenuvo’s patient-centric design is optimized to assess the body holistically and in under 60 minutes, compared with the several hours it would take to achieve this level of insight from conventional MRI scans.
Prenuvo is backed by leading venture capital firms and investors in health, fitness and category-defining consumer brands such as Felicis Ventures [investors in Fitbit (IPO), Guardant Health (IPO) and Ring (acq. by Amazon)], 23AndMe CEO Anne Wojcicki, Nest founder Tony Fadell, Eric Schmidt, Cindy Crawford, Lasker award recipient Dr. Timothy A. Springer and Casamigos co-founder Rande Gerber.
Prenuvo locations include New York, Redwood City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boca Raton, Chicago, Vancouver, and a partner location in Minneapolis; several additional locations will be opening across the country in 2023.
The company is based out of California and British Columbia, Canada.
