Test on spine that spots Parkinson’s before symptoms

Anew test could detect Parkinson’s disease years before any symptoms develop. It involves taking samples of spinal fluid using a fine needle inserted into the lower back to look for signs of a protein that indicates the disease is setting in.

The protein, called alpha-synuclein, is released in sticky clumps in the brain and spinal fluid when Parkinson’s is first developing.

now scientists hope the test will lead to earlier diagnosis and help patients get treatment sooner.

Studies show drugs given to control the condition work much better when given early on in the disease rather than when it has worsened, potentially slowing down its progression.

Around 145,000 people in the UK have Parkinson’s disease. It is caused by a loss of nerve cells in an area of the brain involved in controlling movement.

These nerve cells produce dopamine, a chemical messenger that helps to control body movement.

If these become damaged or die, levels of dopamine are reduced and movements become slow and abnormal.

But symptoms of the disease — such as uncontrollable tremors, slow movements or muscle stiffness — often only appear when about 80 per cent of the nerve cells have been lost.

Doctors diagnose the disease by studying a patient’s symptoms and movement, often followed by a DaT scan — a type of brain scan which measures dopamine levels.

The cause remains a mystery but it is believed that some people carry a mixture of genes that predispose them to damage by toxins in the environment, such as man-made pesticides.

numerous studies have found that long-term exposure to pesticides called organochlorines can damage dopamine-producing brain cells.

Men are 50 per cent more likely to develop the condition than women, possibly because the female hormone oestrogen has a protective effect.

Drugs used to treat Parkinson’s, such as levodopa, reduce symptoms by increasing the amount of dopamine in the brain.

while the average age of diagnosis in the UK is around 65, scientists believe the disease begins to develop, with nerve cells starting to die off, up to 20 years before symptoms show.

now they are looking at new ways to identify patients during these ‘pre-onset’ years — the hope is that spotting and treating them much earlier will give them a much better quality of life.

Scientists at the oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre, part of oxford University, took spinal fluid samples from 74 people with early-stage Parkinson’s disease and compared them with 55 healthy people without it.

The results, published in the journal Brain, showed that the test correctly identified 89 per cent of those with Parkinson’s from the abnormal clumping of the alpha-synuclein protein in the fluid samples. Researchers described the test as acting ‘like a window to the brain’.

The idea is it could one day be used early in the diagnostic process, when patients often see their GP with symptoms not obviously linked to Parkinson’s. For example, many patients suffer from frozen shoulder (where the joint becomes stiff and sore) because of hidden Parkinson’s up to two years before any other signs, such as tremor, emerge.

Ray Chaudhuri, a professor of movement disorders at King’s College London, said the new test is ‘a step in the right direction of getting an earlier diagnosis’.

However, he added: ‘Taking samples of spinal fluid [using a long needle inserted into the spine] might not be a palatable option for some patients.’