Early diagnosis of parkinsonism

Parkinson's disease can be detected long before the symptoms appear

Vladimir Kuznetsov, Hi-News

Over the past few years, many scientists have been trying to solve the question of how to diagnose Parkinson's disease at an early stage, because today it is possible to detect the disease only at the stage of Parkinsonism manifestations, when symptomatic therapy remains the only treatment option. But soon everything may change thanks to the research of scientists from the University of Edinburgh.

A group of doctors from Edinburgh is confident that early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease will not only improve the quality of life of patients, but also give a chance to stop the development of the disease. Researchers led by Alison Green have developed a diagnostic method in which the amount of alpha-synuclein protein, which is part of the Levi bodies, is determined in the neurons of the brain. An increase in the number of Levi's bodies and, accordingly, alpha-synuclein, is one of the signs of the development of Parkinson's disease and some other forms of senile dementia.

Alpha-synuclein is present in the neurons of the brain of all people, and normally its amount should not increase during life. And if the previously available tests could only determine the presence of protein, then the development of scientists at the University of Edinburgh allows us to identify its amount, as well as determine its viscosity, which is different in healthy and at-risk people.

The authors tested the effectiveness of the test on 35 samples, 15 of which belonged to healthy people. With the help of the new system, they were able to correctly diagnose Parkinson's disease in 19 out of 20 cases and exclude the disease from all those who were healthy.

Project manager Dr. Alison Green says (in a press release from the University of Edinburgh Parkinson's test could aid early detection - VM) that this test is also suitable for the early diagnosis of several forms of neurodegenerative diseases, including pathology of Levi's bodies, as well as Creutzfeld –Jakob disease. To the great regret of the researchers, the test is not suitable for determining Alzheimer's disease, but scientists are working in this direction and promise to tell the public the details in case of a successful result.

Article by Fairfoul et al. Alpha-synuclein RT-QuIC in the CSF of patients with alpha-synucleinopathies is published in open access in the journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology – VM.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  01.09.2016