A blood test could make a difference with Parkinson’s: study

A blood test and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) would serve to predict the onset of the Parkinson’s disease until seven years before symptoms appear, indicates a study published by “Nature Communications” and cited by EFE.

A team from University College London and the University Medical Center in Goettingen, Germany, sought new and better biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease to develop into a test that could be transferred to any large laboratory.

With the Using Machine Learning, a branch of artificial intelligenceanalyzed eight blood biomarkers whose concentrations are altered in patients with Parkinson’s and the system gave a diagnosis with 100% accuracy.

The next step was to check whether the test could also predict the likelihood that a person will develop the disease.

Researchers analyzed the blood of 72 patients with ADHD. rapid eye movement behavior (iRBD) Since 75 to 80% of these people with this condition will develop a synucleinopathy (a type of brain disorder caused by the abnormal buildup of a protein called alpha-synuclein in brain cells), including Parkinson’s.

When the machine learning tool analyzed the blood of these patients, it identified that 79% of whats patients with iRBD They had the same profile as someone with Parkinson’s.

Successful test

The patients were followed for ten years and the team correctly predicted that 16 people would develop the disease, up to seven years before any symptoms of the disease appeared.

Patients who were predicted to develop Parkinson’s are still being followed to further verify the accuracy of this test.

“By determining eight proteins in the blood, we can identify potential Parkinson’s patients several years in advance. This means that drug therapies could be administered at an earlier stage, possibly slowing down the progression of the disease or even preventing it from occurring,” said Michael Barlt from the University of Goettingen.

The markers used for diagnosing the disease are directly related to processes such as inflammation y the degradation of non-functional proteins, “They also represent potential targets for new drug treatments,” Barlt added.

The team hopes to secure funding to create a simpler test where a drop of blood can be placed on a card and sent to a lab to investigate whether it can predict the disease even earlier than seven years before symptoms appear in this study.

He Parkinson’s is the neurodegenerative disorder fastest growing disease in the world, currently affecting almost 10 million people around the world.

It is caused by the death or deterioration of nerve cells in the part of the brain that controls movement by losing the ability to produce dopamine, due to the accumulation of a protein, alpha-synuclein.

Currently, patients are treated with dopamine replacement therapy when they have already developed symptoms, such as tremors, slowness of movement and walking, and memory problems.

Researchers believe that early prediction and diagnosis would be valuable in finding treatments that could slow or stop the disease by protecting dopamine-producing brain cells.

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