Source: Fox News
Summary
A new study from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and Oslo University Hospital in Norway may have found a way to detect biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease in the blood up to decades earlier. The study used machine learning to identify patterns linked to DNA repair and cellular stress response, which could lead to early detection and treatment. Researchers believe that blood tests for early Parkinson’s diagnoses could become more common within clinical practice within five years. The study’s findings were published in npj Parkinson’s Disease.
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The advice sounds familiar. Researchers have been searching for early detection methods for Parkinson’s disease for years. This study’s findings may lead to broad screening tests via blood samples, a cost-effective and easily accessible method. The study’s lead author, Annikka Polster, suggests that the study has found an “important window of opportunity” in which the disease can be detected before motor symptoms appear. The researchers plan to further develop tools to more easily detect these active mechanisms and understand how they work. The team predicts that new drugs to prevent or treat the disease could be developed. The study’s limitations include that the gene activity measured in the blood only partly matches what’s happening in the brain.
Here we go again, waiting for the next breakthrough in Parkinson’s research.
Author: Evan Null
