June 19, 2024 – A blood test could reveal which patients are almost certainly to develop Parkinson's disease as much as 7 years before severe symptoms appear, a brand new study suggests.
The seek for a test to diagnose Parkinson’s disease recently reached a milestone when a brand new sort of test got here onto the market referred to as potential game changer resulting from its ability for use as a diagnostic tool.
However, these tests depend on the examination of cerebrospinal fluid, have certain other limitations and haven’t yet been sufficiently linked to the underlying disease, said study creator Dr. Michael Bartl from the Department of Neurology on the University Medical Center Göttingen.
“This is a big step because for the first time we are working with peripheral fluids and have a test that can predict something objectively,” he said. “Our protein panel is also more dynamic and takes pathophysiology into account.”
The study was published online June 18 within the Journal Nature communication.
Discovery and validation phases
The model created by the researchers was capable of discover 100% of patients with Parkinson's disease and predict with 79% accuracy which patients with a selected sleep problem related to neurological diseases would develop Parkinson's disease as much as 7 years before the onset of motor symptoms.
“We know that [this] Sleep disturbances are a strong indicator of the disease and we wanted to see if there might be commonalities,” said Bartl, referring to the so-called premotor isolated REM sleep behavior disorder. “And to our surprise, they had a lot in common with Parkinson's patients. Not only are they at risk, but their blood already indicates that the pathological processes of Parkinson's disease have already taken place.”
“Amazing study”
When asked for comment, Dr. Chan-Hyun Na of the Department of Neurology on the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, said, “This is a reasonably amazing study because diagnosing Parkinson's disease with biomarkers is definitely quite difficult, especially in comparison with other diseases.”
“My lab and my collaborators have been working on discovering Parkinson's biomarkers using cerebrospinal fluid, but we have now found it to be quite difficult,” he said. “But what [these researchers] “They found that they could detect some biomarkers in serum. This makes it much easier to get samples from patients and it's less invasive.”
“There remains a huge unmet need for blood tests to diagnose and predict Parkinson's,” Dr. Ray Chaudhuri, professor of neurology/movement disorders at King's College Hospital and King's College London and medical director of the Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence at King's College, said in a press release.
If the study's findings may be reproduced through further research, these tests could possibly be “invaluable,” he said. “However, questions remain about the ethics of predictive diagnosis in the context of appropriate counseling, as well as the current lack of any disease-modifying treatment.”