Part of the problem with Parkinson’s disease lies in the fact that the disease is often detected late, once the symptoms appear, when the pathology is already well established. But researchers have just identified a biomarker, which could make it possible to advance the fight against Parkinson’s by detecting it much earliervia a blood test, according to Inserm.
When we are able to diagnose Parkinson’s, neurodegeneration has already largely begun, the dopaminergic neurons in the brain are already affected, recalls Inserm. It is noticed because the patient has tremors, has stiffness in the limbs… Before reaching this point, the disease has evolved in silence, often for several years. “There are no curative treatments for the disease because, when it is expressed, the damage is already too advanced”, explains researcher Sabrina Boulet, from the Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences.
A modification of the metabolome from the early stage
The study conducted by Inserm aims to identify a way to identify the disease earlier in order to develop more effective drugs. However, by studying animals “which specifically mimic the early stages” of the disease, the researchers observed changes in the metabolome, which are found clinically in patients with advanced disease.
The metabolome is the set of metabolites found in a biological sample, it represents a kind of “landmark” of the biological processes taking place in a person’s organism. It evolves over the course of life and the diseases that one can develop. We already knew that the latter was “marked” in parkinsonians at the discovery stage of the disease (therefore advanced), but we now know that it is already modified at the early stage.
82% accuracy
This allowed the researchers to implement a strategy by combining results from animals and humans with Parkinson’s. They succeeded in “defining a biomarker comprising several specific compounds, which makes it possible to discriminate people with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease from people without, with an accuracy of 82.6%“, notes Inserm.
The researchers believe that if the biomarker helps detect animals in the early stages of Parkinson’s, it could also be the case for humans. The research will continue by studying samples from patients taken before declaring Parkinson’s. “If it were validated, one can imagine that this biomarker could be used in routine clinical practice, to diagnose people suspected of being affected or who are at high risk of developing the disease”, emphasizes Florence Fauvelle, researcher at the Institute of Neurosciences.
Source : A blood test for early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease? Inserm, March 14, 2022.
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