Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s are among the hardest to detect early and effectively treat. Clinical tests that allow doctors to diagnose the disease sooner are in high demand in the hopes that the quicker the intervention takes place, the less neurological damage will have occurred. Although there is not yet a cure for PD, early-stage intervention offers an opportunity to test new drugs in an effort to effectively treat the disease. Promising new research published in the FASEB journal demonstrates the potential for an assay quantifying a blood-based protein found in Parkinson’s patients, phosphorylated alpha-synuclein, to lead to a diagnostic for PD that would detect the onset of the disease before it can cause significant damage to the brain.
