Researchers based at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences Tofaris lab have developed a new blood test that can identify Parkinson’s disease (PD) before symptom onset.
The new test could help clinicians identify people who are most likely to benefit from disease-modifying therapies.
Currently the second most common neurodegenerative disease, which affects seven million people worldwide, PD progressively causes parts of the brain to become damaged over time.
Most often, PD occurs around a decade before patients begin to seek help for their symptoms, which include involuntary shaking, slow movement and stiff and inflexible muscles.
The study, part-funded by the National Institute for Health and Care (NIHR) Research Oxford Biomedical Centre and the NIHR Clinical Research Network, investigated whether the pathways that handle the alpha-synuclein protein are impaired before PD symptoms occur and whether they could be predicted.
Over time, abnormal clumps of alpha-synuclein form in the brain, which damages nerve cells and can lead to movement disorders and dementia.
Involving 365 at-risk individuals, 282 healthy people and 71 people living with genetic or sporadic PD, researchers found that those with the highest risk of developing PD had a two-fold increase in alpha-synuclein levels.
Furthermore, the new blood test distinguished those with a high risk of developing the disease from a healthy control with a 90% probability.
Researchers also found that a subgroup of 40 individuals blood tests were positive in more than 80% of cases up to seven years before diagnosis for PD or related dementia.
In addition to this, earlier findings revealed that alpha-synuclein in patients who do not have PD but have PD-like symptoms is not increased.
The findings from the study suggest that doctors could screen individuals at high risk of developing the neurodegenerative disease and could begin the introduction of therapies that are in clinical trial stages.
Professor George Tofaris, professor of neurology and translational neuroscience, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, said: “A screening test that could be implemented at scale to identify the disease process early is imperative for the eventual instigation of targeted therapies, as is currently done with screening programmes for common types of cancer.”