A simple and inexpensive blood test can provide early detection of Parkinson’s disease
A new cost-effective RNA blood test can now detect for Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases long before the first symptoms has been recently discovered by taking a novel approach. By simultaneously detecting a repetitive RNA sequence that accumulates in Parkinson’s patients and a decline in mitochondrial RNA, which deteriorates as the disease progresses, this new test achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 86%, significantly outperforming traditional clinical scoring methods.
The test is also non-invasive, rapid and affordable, providing hope for early interventions and treatments that could change the course of the disease.
This development in Parkinson’s detection is the result of the work of a PhD student, Nimrod Madrer under the supervision of Professor Hermona Soreq at The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University, in collaboration with Doctor Iddo Paldor from the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and Droctor Eyal Soreq from the University of Surrey and the Imperial College London.
“This discovery represents a major advancement in our understanding of Parkinson’s disease and offers a simple, minimally-invasive blood test as a tool for early diagnosis. By focusing on transfer RNA fragments, we’ve opened a new window into the molecular changes that occur in the earliest stages of the disease,” said Professor Hermona Soreq.
This finding has been published in the scientific review Nature and has received extensive international coverage.
