United States: In the most recent study, the researchers discovered a new blood test that could identify Parkinson’s as much as seven years ahead of previous approaches.
More about the finding
Scientists from University College London’s Department of Computer Science and colleagues from the University Medical Center Goettingen in Germany created the test with the help of artificial intelligence.
It recruited 72 patients with rapid eye movement behavior disorder (iRBD), a condition that has been associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s, from the time of the initial diagnosis for the study published in Nature Communications.
This concern came to light when the researchers employed a machine-learning approach to analyze blood samples from the patients, which showed that 79 percent of them had biomarkers that were identical to those of Parkinson’s, as Fox News reported.
The researchers later verified the patients’ diagnosis of Parkinson’s after monitoring them for ten years, concluding that this severe movement disorder impacts almost one million Americans.
What more have the experts to say?
According to co-first-author Dr. Michael Bartl from the University Medical Center Goettingen, “By determining eight proteins in the blood, we can identify potential Parkinson’s patients several years in advance,” as Fox News reported.
“This means that drug therapies could potentially be given at an earlier stage, which could possibly slow down disease progression or even prevent it from occurring,” he added.
Moreover “We have not only developed a test, but can diagnose the disease based on markers that are directly linked to processes such as inflammation and degradation of non-functional proteins. So these markers represent possible targets for new drug treatments,” as he continued.
Blood tests are a more careful way of replacing lumbar puncture, which has been used in diagnosing Parkinson’s more frequently in clinical trials, according to the head of research at Parkinson’s UK- Professor David Dexter.
Dexter said, “This research, co-funded by Parkinson’s UK, represents a major step forward in the search for a definitive and patient-friendly diagnostic test for Parkinson’s,” as Fox News reported.
In the future, the researchers intend to continue the follow-up of these participants to establish the validity of the test, while samples from other members of the population who are likely to be at a genealogical risk of Parkinson’s will also be analyzed.
Therefore, “with more work, it may be possible that this blood-based test could distinguish between Parkinson’s and other conditions that have some early similarities, such as multiple systems atrophy or Lewy body dementia,” Dexter added.
He continued, “The findings add to an exciting flurry of recent activity toward finding a simple way to test for and measure Parkinson’s.”