Blood test detects Parkinson’s risk before symptoms

Researchers at Oxford University have developed a blood test to identify people who are likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.

The Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences said the test could detect early signs of the disease long before the onset of symptoms.

Parkinsons’s disease is known to start more than ten years before patients seek help for symptoms.   It affects seven million people worldwide and cases are expected to double by 2040.  By the time of diagnosis, damage to nerve cells, which leads to movement disorder and often dementia, has already occurred.

It is hoped a test will allow those suitable for early stage clinical trials to be identified more quickly.

In the trial, it was found that changes in a protein called alpha-synuclein could identify people who are most likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.  The team looked at hundreds of individuals and found those with the highest risk of developing the disease had a two-fold increase in alpha-synuclein levels.

Professor George Tofaris, who is supervising the research, said “A screening test that could be implemented at scale to identify the disease process early is imperative for the eventual investigation of targeted therapies, as is currently done with screening programmes for common types of cancer.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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