Swedish researchers cite biomarker advance for early stage Parkinson’s

Researchers at the private research institute Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg described how biological processes deposited traces in the blood for a limited time.

This could enable blood tests for early diagnosis, with testing in healthcare feasible within five years, they say.

Their work published in npj Parkinson’s Disease was conducted with the help of colleagues based at Oslo University Hospital in neighbouring Norway.

Study first author, doctoral student at Chalmers Department of Life Sciences Danish Anwer, said the discovery could overcome current problems in diagnosing Parkinson’s before its effects become too entrenched.

“By the time the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease appear, 50-80%of the relevant brain cells are often already damaged or gone. The study is an important step towards facilitating early identification of the disease and counteracting its progression before it has gone this far,” said Anwer.

Parkinson’s is estimated to affect more than 10 million people around the world mostly becoming evident when sufferers are in their 50s or 60s. With average longevity increasing, the number affected is predicted to double by 2050; the disease currently lacks either a cure or an established screening method.

Chalmers research focused on the body’s repair system for DNA damage and cells’ stress responses. Machine learning machine learning was one of several techniques employed to determine a pattern of gene activities linked to both factors present in patients in the early phase of Parkinson’s but not present either in healthy individuals or diagnosed patients already exhibiting symptoms.

“We have found an important window of opportunity in which the disease can be detected before motor symptoms caused by nerve damage in the brain appear,” said Annikka Polster, study leader and assistant professor at Chalmers life science department.

“The fact that these patterns only show at an early stage and are no longer activated when the disease has progressed further also makes it interesting to focus on the mechanisms to find future treatments.”

She added that the research could enable a “cost-effective, easily accessible method,” for screening tests via blood samples, possibly within five years.

Now the Chalmers team say they will try to better understand how the mechanisms activated in the early stage of the disease work. They will also seek to help develop tools to improve detection and drugs to prevent or treat Parkinson’s.

“If we can study the mechanisms as they happen, it could provide important keys to understanding how they can be stopped and which drugs might be effective.

“This may involve new drugs, but also drug repurposing, where we can use drugs developed for diseases other than Parkinson’s because the same gene activities or mechanisms are active,” explained Polster.

Within the Parkinson’s research community, other biological indicators of the disease’s early stage of the disease have been considered such as brain imaging or brain fluid analyses. Currently, though, validated tests for widespread detection screening remain unavailable.

CRAFOORD PRIZE: Professor (Emeritus) of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego Veerabhadran Ramanathan has won the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Crafoord Prize in Geosciences, valued at eight million Swedish kronor (c£660,000).

Ramanathan played a key role in NASA’s use of satellites to highlight greenhouse gases’ contribution to global warming and also detailed how CFCs affected the ozone layer and climate.

“This prize shows that climate science is based on the best possible observations and fundamental principles of physics and chemistry. It gives me a forum to talk about the science of climate change and build public trust in climate science.” he said.

Pic: Annika Polster and Danish Anwar (Annika Polster, Chalmers University of Technology/Martina Butorac)