A blood sample will be enough to know if there is a shadow of Parkinson’s behind a person. Researchers from Kobe University and Hiroshima University have successfully developed a biomarker that will allow diagnosing the disease quickly and inexpensively, precisely from blood serum samples.
It is the result of a study conducted by Imaishi Hiromasa e Ihara Kohei of the University of Kobe Biosignal Research Center and the assistant professor’s research group Oguro Ami, under the Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life of the University of Hiroshima. Everything was published in the magazine Scientific Reports.
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As the elderly population continues to increase, the number of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases is also expected to increase. Parkinson’s disease is a type of disease for which the development of a simple diagnostic method was expected. The methodology used is based on an enzyme that metabolizes drugs, cytochrome P450: it not only metabolizes drugs, but also acts as a catalyst for the oxidation of various substances. P450 expression within the body has been found to change with the onset of various diseases, and this change is believed to affect the quantity and quality of metabolites in the body of P450-related patients.
He tests
In the developed test, 12 different human P450s are each mixed with a serum sample and a fluorescent substrate to cause a reaction. There are differences in the quantity and quality of P450-related metabolites in sera from healthy individuals and patients. These serum metabolites inhibit P450-mediated oxidation of the fluorescent substrate.
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By looking at the rate of inhibition related to disease-mediated alterations in some P450s, it is possible to discriminate serum samples from an individual with a specific disease and from a healthy subject. This is because P450 reacts with the fluorescent substrate to generate a fluorescent substance when tested on sera from healthy individuals.
However, the reaction is different when the test is performed on patient sera and therefore the obtained fluorescence values change. In this way, the “P450 fluorescent inhibition test”, detecting these changes, can be used to determine whether or not a disease is present.