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Measuring the amount of alpha-synuclein in tiny blood serum vesicles can help diagnose early Parkinson's syndrome and identify patients with different types of this disease.
The study with this conclusion, "Exosomal syn-alpha-exucleosis derived from the central nervous system could be a biomarker of Parkinson's disease, "Was published recently in the journal Neuroscience.
Because resting and posture tremors can occur in the early stages of Parkinson's disease, patients may be misdiagnosed with essential tremors. Similar to Parkinson's disease, essential tremor is a progressive movement disorder that affects mainly the hands and arms.
Alpha-synuclein is the main component of Lewy bodies, characteristic protein aggregates that accumulate in the brain cells of Parkinson's patients.
Compared with unaffected individuals, Parkinson's patients generally have lower levels of alpha-synuclein in their cerebrospinal fluid – the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord – which is correlated with prognosis. However, clinical alpha-synuclein measurement was prevented by the invasive nature of spinal puncture and the inconsistent results of plasma or serum samples.
Exosomes are tiny vesicles released by neurons and other cells. They have been implicated in the transmission of misfolded proteins, including alpha-synuclein in people with Parkinson's disease. The researchers hypothesized that exosomes derived from the central nervous system (CNS) could be a peripheral biomarker of Parkinson's disease.
Scientists recruited 38 newly diagnosed and untreated patients with early Parkinson's disease, divided into dominant tremor (TD, 22 patients, mean age 62.7 years) and non-tremor dominant (NTD, 16 patients, 62.1 years), compared to 21 patients. with essential tremor (62 years) and 18 healthy controls.
Among patients with Parkinson's disease, those with TD had a shorter duration of illness than those with ATN subtype (19.2 vs 35.8 months). The age of onset of the disease did not differ in these two groups – 61.1 years in TD patients and 59.1 years in SNP patients.
The results revealed that Parkinson's patients had lower levels of alpha-synuclein in serum exosomes derived from the CNS than those with essential tremor or controls. It is important to note that in patients with Parkinson's disease, patients with the type of NTD – which was badociated with more frequent depression, lack of motivation and impaired activities of daily living – had lower than those of the TD subgroup.
Subsequent badysis revealed that exosomal alpha-synuclein had a moderate diagnostic potential for Parkinson's disease and a high potential for diagnosis of non-dominant tremor patients.
It should be noted that the amount of CNS-derived alpha-synuclein in the exosomes was not significantly badociated with the duration or severity of the disease.
Overall, "CNS-derived exosomes [alpha]-synuclein in serum can be considered as a biomarker to identify [early Parkinson’s], "Scientists have written.
Noting that studies involving larger patient groups and those with longitudinal surveillance are needed, the team added that the evaluation of alpha-synuclein in serum exosomes could also help identify different types of from Parkinson.
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