Skip to main content

New system for detecting Parkinson’s early

Written on |

New method tracks early stages of protein aggregation involved in Parkinson’s

Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease, affecting everything from speech, posture and gait to digestion, sleep, impulse control and cognition. Therapies exist that alleviate some symptoms of the disease, but there is still no cure for Parkinson’s, which affects close to one million Americans and 10 million people worldwide.

A new Tel Aviv University study unveils a novel method for detecting the aggregation of the protein alpha-synuclein, a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. With this knowledge, caregivers could introduce treatment that has the potential to significantly delay disease progression.

By the time a patient is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, 50 percent to 80 percent of the dopaminergic cells in the part of the brain called substania nigra are already dead, possibly due to development of toxicity as result of alpha-synuclein aggregation. “We have developed a new method for tracking early stages of aggregation of alpha-synuclein using super-resolution microscopy and advanced analysis,” says Prof. Uri Ashery, co-author of the study and head of TAU’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. The research was published in Acta Neuropathologica on May 31.

“Together with our collaborators at Cambridge University, who developed a special mouse model for Parkinson’s disease, we were able to detect different stages of the aggregation of this protein,” Prof. Ashery explains. “We correlated the aggregation with the deteriorating loss of neuronal activity and deficits in the behavior of the mice.”

A big step towards early detection

“This is extremely important because we can now detect early stages of alpha-synuclein aggregation and monitor the effects of drugs on this aggregation,” says Dr. Dana Bar-On of the Sagol School of Neuroscience, a co-author of the study. “We hope that this research can be implemented for use in the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s in patients. We’re currently working to implement the methods in a minimally invasive manner with Parkinson’s patients.”

The researchers, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute in Gottingen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, were able to illustrate the effect of a specific drug, anle138b, on this protein aggregation and correlated these results with the normalization of the Parkinson’s phenotype in the mice, according to Prof. Ashery. “This is a significant step forward in the world of Parkinson’s research,” he says.

The researchers are planning to expand their research to family members of Parkinson’s disease patients. “By detecting aggregates using minimally invasive methods in relatives of Parkinson’s disease patients, we can provide early detection and intervention and the opportunity to track and treat the disease before symptoms are even detected,” Prof. Ashery concludes.

Related posts

Could Cancer Vulnerabilities Be Hidden in Chromosome Changes?

23 September 2024

Spotting Parkinson’s Early: A New TAU Breakthrough

17 September 2024

How Can We See Through Closed Eyes?

16 September 2024

Can Parkinson’s Treatment be Enhanced by AI Tech?

1 September 2024

Want to Fall in Love? Step Outside in The Sun

19 August 2024

Can Smartwatches Prevent Pandemic Outbreaks?

7 August 2024

How Close Are We to Thought-Based Communication?

22 July 2024

Will Wearable Tech Transform Neurological Diagnosis?

21 July 2024

Will Existing Drugs Stop Cancer’s Bone Spread?

19 May 2024

Heart Disease’s Cancer Link Unveiled

14 April 2024

Do Green Environments Help Heart Patients Live Longer?

4 April 2024

TAU Receives $12.67M Grant for Medical Simulation Center

1 April 2024

Breaking the MedTech Glass Ceiling

27 March 2024

Summer Glow: How Sun Exposure Boosts Fertility in Women Ages 30-40

7 March 2024

Are We Close to Ending Alzheimer’s Memory Loss?

15 February 2024

Destroying Cancer: new drug delivery system containing RNA therapy can target cancer cells in bone marrow

31 July 2023

Victoria

Tok Corporate Centre, Level 1,
459 Toorak Road, Toorak VIC 3142
Phone: +61 3 9296 2065
Email: [email protected]

New South Wales

Level 22, Westfield Tower 2, 101 Grafton Street, Bondi Junction NSW 2022
Phone: +61 418 465 556
Email: [email protected]

Western Australia

P O Box 36, Claremont,
WA  6010
Phone: :+61 411 223 550
Email: [email protected]