Why detect Parkinson remains a major medical challenge
Parkinson’s disease is a brain pathology that mainly affects the elderly. It causes tremors, muscle stiffness and balance disorders. The problem ? These signs often only appear the damage already well installed in the brain. Result: we make the diagnosis too late, when it is already difficult to act.
For the moment, doctors are only based on the observation of symptoms to identify the disease. But as these vary a lot from patient to patient, or can be confused with other diseases, diagnostic errors are not uncommon. This is why researchers have long been looking for a simpler and more reliable way to spot Parkinson earlier.
An ultra-preccosed early test that changes the rules of the game
Good news: a team of researchers from the University of Ruhr, Germany, thinks they have found the solution. They developed a test capable of detecting traces of Parkinson’s disease very early in the cerebrospinal fluid-that is to say the fluid that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord.
This test is based on special technology, called an immuno-infrarouge (or IRS) sensor. It identifies a protein called alpha-synuclein (αsyn), which behaves abnormally in people with Parkinson.
Professor Klaus Gerwert, who directs the research, explains:
“”These bad folds make the protein sticky, leading to the formation of larger complexes, called oligomers. Oligomers then produce long fibrillar filaments and cause the aggregation of these macroscopically large lewy filaments in the brain “.
In other words: in patients, this protein agglutinates and forms toxic clusters for neurons. The test makes it possible to identify this phenomenon from the start of the disease. Of the 134 people tested, the result is clear: it detects the disease in more than 90 % of cases (we talk about sensitivity) and gives very few false positives, that is to say that it almost never is mistaken by announcing a disease where there is none (it is the specificity).
Towards a new era for the treatments of Parkinson’s disease
This test does not only make it possible to make a better diagnosis. It also opens up prospects to better follow the evolution of the disease, and measure whether treatment is effective or not. In other words, it is one more tool to fight against Parkinson on several fronts at the same time.
This kind of test could also make it possible to identify the patients very early, sometimes even before the appearance of the first symptoms. By integrating this biomarker in clinical trials, researchers hope to accelerate the development of new treatments and improve the quality of life of Parkinson’s disease.
A huge hope to improve management, adapt the treatments faster, and why not, one day, completely prevents the appearance of the disease.