New research from Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology and Norway’s Oslo University Hospital may have found a way to detect biomarkers such as: parkinson’s disease It was in the blood until a few decades ago.
In the very early stages of disease, the body undergoes changes related to DNA repair and cellular stress. These changes leave detectable clues in the blood before anything serious happens. brain damage According to the study’s press release, this phenomenon occurs.
This allows for early detection of Parkinson’s disease, increasing the chance that treatment can delay or prevent serious damage.
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Researchers say DNA repair and cellular stress response processes can occur for up to 20 years in Parkinson’s patients before motor symptoms fully develop.
The team used machine learning to discover patterns related to these processes, but these patterns were not found. healthy person or patients who have already been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
In a statement, study leader Anikka Polster, an assistant professor at Chalmers University’s School of Life Sciences, suggested the study had uncovered an “important opportunity” to detect disease “before motor symptoms of nerve damage to the brain appear.”
“The fact that these patterns are only shown at early stages and become deactivated at further stages of the disease also makes it interesting to focus on the mechanisms of discovery. Future treatments” she added.
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Mr. Polster admitted the study They highlighted biomarkers that “likely reflect some of the early biology of the disease” and said this “opens the way to widespread screening tests with blood samples, which are cost-effective and readily available.”
The results of this study were published in the journal NPJ Parkinson’s Disease.
The researchers plan to develop further tools to more easily detect and understand how these activation mechanisms work, the university said.
The research team predicts that blood tests for early Parkinson’s disease diagnosis could become more common in clinical practice within five years. They also new drug To prevent or treat disease.
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“Studying the mechanisms at play could provide important keys to understanding how we can stop them and which drugs are effective,” Professor Polster said.
“This could include new drugs, but also the repurposing of drugs that could use drugs developed for diseases other than Parkinson’s because they activate the same gene activity or mechanism.”
The researchers acknowledged that the study had some limitations, including that the gene activity measured in the blood only partially matched what was happening in the brain.
The researchers added that external factors, such as drug use, may have influenced the results.
Additionally, the study population may not be representative of all people, so the findings may not be widely applicable.
According to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, it is estimated that more than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease. Approximately 90,000 people are diagnosed each year in the United States.
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As Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, the number of patients is expected to continue to increase. after alzheimer’s disease.
Although research is ongoing and there are medications to manage symptoms, there is currently no cure for the disease.
Common motor symptoms include tremor, slowness of movement, muscle stiffness, difficulty with balance and walking, shuffling, and freezing.
Non-motor symptoms include loss of smell; sleep problemsAccording to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and Mayo Clinic, symptoms include constipation, fatigue, depression and anxiety, changes in speech and swallowing, cognitive decline, and decreased facial expressions.
Denmark Anwar, a PhD student in the School of Life Sciences at Chalmers University and lead author of the study, detailed in a statement how Parkinson’s disease affects the brain.
“By the time motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease appear, 50% to 80% of the involved brain cells are often already damaged or gone,” he said. “This research is an important step toward promoting early detection of the disease and stopping it before it progresses to that point.”
FOX News Senior Medical Analyst Dr. Mark Siegel agreed that Parkinson’s disease is a “very difficult disease” with a growing global impact.
“By the time actual motor symptoms appear that affect walking, tremors, etc., the majority of patients are affected cells It was damaged and destroyed,” he told FOX News Digital.
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Professor Siegel called the new research “interesting” and suggested it “opens the door to earlier and more effective diagnosis and treatment.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the study authors for comment.
