In 2023, researchers developed a way to measure a biomarker for early Parkinson’s diagnosis, with support from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
This is the first method validated in clinical trials that’s actually usable in real-world practice. The technique is too complex for a routine screening, though.
Several biomarkers have been proposed for the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s. One is a protein called alpha-synuclein.
Alpha-synuclein is the main component of Lewy bodies, the inclusions in the nerve cells of the substantia nigra that are characteristic of Parkinson’s. It is currently believed that mutations and other disruptions that aren’t fully understood yet cause alpha-synuclein to misfold and form those aggregates, the Lewy bodies. This process triggers the neuronal degeneration seen in the disease.
Alpha-synuclein also travels beyond the brain and can be found in plasma, saliva, and cerebrospinal fluid. Research is focused on detecting the specific isoform associated with Parkinson’s.
So what exactly did the scientists achieve in 2023? They developed a reproducible, accurate way to measure alpha-synuclein levels in cerebrospinal fluid. The original publication reported a sensitivity of 87.7%; the foundation now reports 93%. The work continues, and researchers are developing ways to detect the pathological protein in saliva or plasma. That would open the door to a screening test, or to ordering the assay for anyone suspected of having early Parkinson’s, for example, when their sense of smell starts to decline.
The method is called the alpha-synuclein seeding amplification assay (αSyn-SAA). The abnormal protein from a patient’s sample acts as a seed, prompting the normal proteins in the test tube to take on the same misfolded shape and clump together.
Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 29 — remarkably early — and he has been helping to find a cure ever since. Right now, only replacement therapy and non-drug approaches are available to ease symptoms and slow the disease’s progression. Diagnosing it early, before rigidity and tremor set in, would make it possible to run large-scale studies of drugs that could delay or even prevent symptoms from appearing.
You can watch the video featuring celebrities here.
Which films or TV series with Michael J. Fox do you like most? I remember him well in ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘The Good Fight’. And he also played Marty McFly in ‘Back to the Future’.
Terms for your glossary (to solidify this background knowledge):
– Parkinson’s disease
– alpha-synuclein
– Lewy bodies
– alpha-synuclein seeding amplification assay (αSyn-SAA)
