NEW DELHI: A “simple” blood test could detect Parkinson's disease up to seven years before symptoms start to appear, according to a study published in the journal Neurology. Nature Communications.
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder whose symptoms include tremors, slowness of movement and gait, and memory loss.
The researchers used machine learning to analyze blood samples from 72 patients with rapid eye movement behavior disorder (iRBD), a condition in which people involuntarily act out their dreams physically.
Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that learns from past data to make future predictions.
According to a research team led by researchers at University College London in the UK, around 75-80% of people with iRBD develop buildup of abnormal alpha-synuclein protein in the brain, a phenomenon also seen in people with Parkinson's disease.
Using a machine learning tool they developed to analyze blood samples, the researchers found that about 80% of the 72 patients with iRBD shared a profile with patients with age-related neurodegenerative diseases.
The researchers also tested whether the tool could predict whether patients were likely to develop Parkinson's disease, and for this they followed up patients with iRBD for 10 years.
The researchers found that the tool accurately predicted that 16 patients would develop neurodegenerative diseases, up to seven years before symptoms appeared.
“By detecting eight proteins in the blood, we can identify patients who may have Parkinson's disease several years in advance, which means that drug treatment could be administered earlier and potentially slow the progression of the disease or prevent it from ever occurring,” said first author Michael Bartl from the University Medical Center Göttingen in Germany.
Published June 19, 2024 13:26 IST
