Newly discovered blood markers could underpin a Parkinson’s blood test that flags the disease years before symptoms appear, researchers said.
While there is currently no cure for the degenerative brain condition and no test to diagnose it, early detection is crucial to start treatments that may slow progression.
A blood test for these markers could allow earlier diagnosis, giving patients and doctors more time to respond.
The research was conducted by a team at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
Danish Anwer, a doctoral student at the university, said: “By the time the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease appear, 50 to 80 per cent 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.”
The team found that the biological processes leading to the disease leave traces in the blood, but only for a short window between the condition’s incubation and the first symptoms.
They focused on two processes thought to be involved early on, up to 20 years before tremors and other motor symptoms: the body’s ability to repair DNA damage, and cells’ responses to stress. Both help fix damage inside cells.
Using machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, the researchers identified a genetic pattern in people who were not healthy and had no symptoms yet.
Annikka Polster, an assistant professor at the university’s Department of Life Sciences, said: “This means that 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.”
Previous studies have identified other biological indicators in blood, brain fluid and even earwax.
A protein tied to cell loss in the brain called alpha-synuclein is the first widely used biomarker.
However, tests suitable for widespread screening are not yet available and doctors still rely on symptoms and medical history to make a diagnosis.
The researchers say their findings could lead to such a test within five years and may also support drug development.
Polster said: “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.”
