JERUSALEM, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli-led research team has developed a new technology for the early detection of Parkinson's disease up to 20 years before symptoms appear, Tel Aviv University said in a statement on Monday.
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the gradual loss of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. Diagnosis typically relies on observable symptoms like tremors and gait issues, which appear only after significant neuron loss.
In the study, Israeli researchers used super-resolution microscopy and computational analysis to precisely map protein aggregates, a key indicator of Parkinson's, in people's skin biopsies.
According to the researchers, protein aggregation begins about 15 years before symptoms, and cell death occurs 5 to 10 years before current diagnostic methods can detect it. Therefore, their new technology opens a significant 20-year window for diagnosis and intervention.
They tested the technology on skin biopsies from seven Parkinson's patients and seven healthy individuals from three leading Israeli medical centers and successfully mapped and identified more protein aggregates in those with Parkinson's.
The new technology, detailed in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, can identify early cellular signs of Parkinson's, offering the potential for earlier treatment or even prevention of the disease, said the researchers, noting that it may also enable early detection of other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's.
Next, the team plans to develop a machine learning algorithm to correlate motor and cognitive test results with microscopic findings to predict the future development of the disease. ■
