14 DAY TRIAL // A team of researchers in the United States announces in a new study the discovery of a biochemical signal that may finally help explain why Parkinson's disease sets in at different speeds in different patients. In some people, the neurodegenerative condition progresses very fast, while in others it moves at a snail's pace. The new study was focused on determining why that happens.
The research was led by scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), Emory University, Korea University and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), using funds from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American Parkinson's Disease Association.
The biochemical agent the scientists discovered is only present in the blood stream of patients suffering from the fast-evolving form of Parkinson's disease. This means that doctors will soon be able to use tests that target this biomarker to predict if and when a patient will develop this fast form of dementia.
Additionally, such a test will also contribute to the early detection of aggressive Parkinson's, allowing neurologists to come up with more effective treatments against the disorder. Details of the new study were published in the latest online issue of the open-access scientific journal PLoS ONE.
“The course of Parkinson's can be highly variable. Some patients can become wheelchair-bound, demented or severely depressed within just a few years after diagnosis, while others are spared for longer periods,” says one of the senior authors of the study, Dr. Beate Ritz.
The expert holds an appointment as a professor and chair of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology. Statistically, one in 60 people in the United States will develop some form of Parkinson's as they become older. Treating this condition nationwide costs around $23 billion (17 billion euros) per year.
The biomarker the team identified is called N8-acetyl spermidine, and is only present in people with the fast-acting form of the neurodegenerative condition. “This is an important step forward in understanding how Parkinson's evolves,” Ritz explains.
Finding such molecules is also very important because it opens the way towards conducting new clinical trials for drugs aimed at treating Parkinson's. This condition is characterized by a very low quality of life, loss of motor control, mental degeneration and several other symptoms.