25 minutes ago
Elizabeth Quigley
BBC News, Ecosse
Photo credit, PA Medium
Joy first detected the scent of Parkinson’s disease in her husband, who was diagnosed at the age of 45.
A Scottish woman who discovered she might detect Parkinson’s through her sense of smell has prompted scientists to develop a swab test that might be used to diagnose her.
A group of researchers from Manchester claim to have created a new method that can detect the disease in three minutes.
But before the diagnostic test can be used in clinics or by GPs, more studies will be needed to validate the results.
The scientific work was inspired by Joy Milne, a retired nurse from Perth, a city in central Scotland in the United Kingdom.
The 72-year-old woman knew her husband Les had Parkinson’s disease more than 12 years before he was diagnosed.
Joy had noticed a change in her husband’s scent.
“He had a rather unpleasant musty smell, especially around his shoulders and neck, and his skin had definitely changed,” she says.
95% accuracy
She only became aware of the link between the smell and the disease following Les was diagnosed and met people who had the same smell at a support group for Parkinson’s patients in the UK.
Les passed away in June 2015.
Joy Milne.
Now a team from the University of Manchester, in collaboration with Joy, have developed a simple skin rub test which they claim is 95% accurate under laboratory conditions to detect whether a person has Parkinson’s disease.
The researchers analyzed sebum, the oily substance in the skin, taken with a cotton swab from the patients’ backs, an area less frequently washed.
Using mass spectrometry, they compared 79 people with Parkinson’s disease to a control group of 71 people without the disease.
The researchers found more than 4,000 unique compounds in the samples, 500 of which were different between people with Parkinson’s disease and the unaffected group.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Un test “transformative”
Professor Perdita Barran, who led the research, points out that there is currently no chemical test for Parkinson’s disease and that thousands of people are on waiting lists for neurological consultation.
According to her, the development of a confirmatory test which might be used by a general practitioner would be “transformative”.
“So far, we’ve developed it in a research lab and are now working with colleagues in hospital testing labs to transfer our test to them so they can use it,” she adds. .
“We hope that within two years we can start testing people in Manchester.”
Professor Perdita Barran said she was delighted with the research results.
Parkinson’s disease is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world.
Estimates from 2019 showed that more than 8 million people suffer from the disease worldwide, according to the UN.
There is no cure or definitive diagnostic test, and doctors diagnose patients by observing symptoms.
This condition can cause a wide range of symptoms, including difficulty walking, speaking, and tremors.
Months or years of waiting for a diagnosis
Scientists must now validate their results in a clinical laboratory before they can be used in patients.
James Jopling, director of Parkinson’s UK in Scotland, said the discovery might make a real difference for people with the condition.
Joy says that if she had known earlier that her husband had Parkinson’s disease, she would have traveled more with him and spent more time with the family.
“Currently, without a definitive test, people have to wait months or years to be diagnosed, so it’s extremely important that people get the treatment and support they need and that researchers can start new treatments,” she explained.
Joy knows what an earlier diagnosis would have meant for her and her family.
“We might have spent more time as a family,” she notes.
“We would have traveled more. If we had known earlier, I might have explained the mood swings and depression.”
The night before she died, her husband made her promise to investigate her sense of smell.
“You have to do it because it will make a difference,” her late husband told Joy, the 72-year-old says.
She now hopes her discovery will make a difference.