24th September 2015 - New research

AUTOANTIBODIES FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE

For the first time a selection of blood-borne autoantibody biomarkers with a higher prevalence in early Parkinson's Disease were used to facilitate the diagnosis of early Parkinson's Disease. Antibodies are proteins produced by a person's immune system that allows their body to distinguish between "self" and "non-self" proteins. For more information go to : Autoantibodies

The sera of people with early stage Parkinson's Disease were screened with human protein microarrays containing 9486 potential antigen targets in order to identify autoantibodies that are potentially useful as biomarkers for Parkinson's Disease.

Selected, blood-borne autoantibody biomarkers with a higher prevalence in early Parkinson's Disease could distinguish early Parkinson's Disease with an overall accuracy of 88%, a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 85%.

These biomarkers were also capable of differentiating people with early Parkinson's Disease from those with mild to moderate Parkinson's Disease with an overall accuracy of 97%. The biomarkers could also distinguish people with early Parkinson's Disease from those with other neurological disorders.

The results demonstrate, for the first time, that selected autoantibodies may prove to be useful as effective blood-based biomarkers for the diagnosis of early Parkinson's Disease.

Reference : Immunology Letters [2015] Sep 16 [Epub ahead of print] (C.A.DeMarshall, M.Han, E.P.Nagele, A.Sarkar, N.K.Acharya, G.Godsey, E.L.Goldwaser, M.Kosciuk, U.Thayasivam, B.Belinka, R.G.Nagele) Complete abstract  For more news go to Parkinson's Disease News

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