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The accumulation of a protein, alpha-synuclein, in the brain is indeed linked to certain forms of Parkinson’s disease, confirms a study published Thursday, potentially opening the way to an early diagnosis of this pathology.
The high presence of this protein in the cerebrospinal fluid, which bathes the brain, is “with great precision (to identify) the typical forms of Parkinson’s disease“, summarizes this study published in the Lancet Neurology and conducted by the American neurologist Andrew Siderowf.
Parkinson’s disease is, along with Alzheimer’s, one of the main pathologies to strike the brain. But it is still largely unknown what causes this insidious evil over which the patient gradually loses his ability to move.
However, several factors are known to be associated with the disease. Among the latter, it has been known for several years that patients often present with α-synuclein aggregates.
The Lancet Neurology study, which has the advantage of being the first of its kind carried out on hundreds of patients, confirms that by testing for the high presence of this protein, the disease can be largely identified.
However, the results are of unequal precision. In patients carrying a genetic mutation – known as LRRK2 – associated with certain forms of Parkinson’s, the presence of aggregates is less systematic.
In any case, we are still far from setting up a “biological” test for Parkinson’s disease, which is currently only diagnosed by its visible symptoms.
In particular, it should be determined whether the technique works as well with blood tests, which are much easier to perform than those of the cerebrospinal fluid.
But this studylays the foundations for a biological diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease“, judge, in a commentary also published by the Lancet Neurology, researchers who did not participate in this work, the neurologists Daniela Berg and Christine Klein.
For them, it has now been proven that the role of a-synuclein “is a game changer in Parkinson’s disease diagnostics, research and clinical trials“.
They find it particularly interesting that the researchers also measured the presence of a high concentration of a-synuclein in patients who have early signs of Parkinson’s disease, in particular a weakening of the sense of smell, without this this is still proved.