Researchers have reported in the journal Nature Communications that a blood panel could help identify patients at risk early on and thus prevent a full blown disease
Living with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a difficult thing but what if that wasn’t necessary? New research suggests that it may be possible to predict the onset of this motor disease seven years before the symptoms start showing, this giving doctors ample time to address and possibly prevent a full blown disease.
Scientists at UCL and University Medical Center Goettingen and their collaborators have reported in Nature Communications that a blood test may be sufficient for this. They said that they have identified eight “objective biomarkers for early/pre-motor disease stages to be able to intervene and slow the underlying neurodegenerative process”.
Parkinson’s disease is the world’s fastest growing neurodegenerative disorder and currently affects nearly 10 million people across the globe. Senior author, Professor Kevin Mills (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health), said: “As new therapies become available to treat Parkinson’s, we need to diagnose patients before they have developed the symptoms. We cannot regrow our brain cells and therefore we need to protect those that we have. At present we are shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted and we need to start experimental treatments before patients develop symptoms. Therefore, we set out to use state-of-the-art technology to find new and better biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease and develop them into a test that we can translate into any large NHS laboratory. With sufficient funding, we hope that this may be possible within two years.”
The researchers wrote: “PD has emerged as the world’s fastest-growing neurodegenerative disorder and currently affects close to 10 million people worldwide. Consequently, there is an urgent need for disease-modifying and prevention strategies. The development of such strategies is hampered by two limitations: there are major gaps in our understanding of the earliest events in the molecular pathophysiology of PD, and we lack reliable and objective biomarkers and tests in easily accessible bio-fluids. We, therefore, need biomarkers that can identify PD earlier, preferably a significant time before an individual develops significant neuronal loss and disabling motor and/or cognitive disease. Such biomarkers would advance population-based screenings to identify individuals at risk and who could be included in upcoming prevention trials.
