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A new study 2published in the journal npj Parkinson’s Disease found a potential new way to detect the disease. It would help doctors diagnose patients with the disorder earlier, which could help potential therapies be more effective1.
Parkinson’s disease is a “brain disorder that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination,” according to the National Institute on Aging. Symptoms worsen over time, and people may eventually have trouble walking or talking. People with the disorder may also notice “mental and behavioral changes, sleep problems, depression, memory issues, and fatigue.”
People with isolated REM (rapid eye movement) sleep behavior disorder sometimes show symptoms of Parkinson’s disease or other related diseases later in their lives3. REM sleep behavior disorder causes people to experience particularly “vivid and disturbing” dreams and move around in their sleep4potentially injuring themselves or others.
To understand the study, you need to know about a key characteristic of Parkinson’s disease. It’s part of a group of disorders that are characterized by the presence of unusual clumps of the protein alpha-synuclein in cells.
A research team led by Erdem Gültekin Tamgüney, PhD, from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in Germany, found that people with REM sleep behavior disorder have a higher amount of the αalpha-synuclein aggregates characteristic of Parkinson’s disease in their stool. The researchers also presented a method for detecting the protein’s presence, which could help doctors diagnose Parkinson’s disease earlier.
Tamgüney hopes that his team’s findings could prompt the development of a noninvasive tool to detect Parkinson’s and other related disorders and help people receive therapies before symptoms occur. Nevertheless, more research would be needed.
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