ICBII UPDATE ON THE ROAD TO THE CURE: A REAL-TIME SCIENCE REPORT

Potential Blood Test for Parkinson’s Dementia

Cognitive decline is a common non-motor impairment in Parkinson’s disease (PD), where patients experience conversion from normal cognitive function to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and eventually to Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) over time. Current evidence suggests that with disease progression, the incidence of PDD tends to rise (Brain Pathol. 20, 633–639 (2010). Tracking the progression of cognitive decline and assisting in clinical intervention requires a concise and accessible biomarker. Unfortunately, there are no reliable blood or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for diagnosing and managing PDD in clinical practice.

Neurofilaments (Nfs) are neuron-specific cytoskeletal proteins, whose levels increased in biological fluids proportionally to the degree of axonal damage, both in normal and in pathologic conditions, representing potential biomarkers in various neurological disorders, such as motor neuron disorder of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and PDD. Growing evidence has shown that phosphorylated neurofilaments heavy chain (p-NfH) and neurofilaments light chain (NfL) are increased in blood and cerebrospinal fluid of ALS and PDD patients compared to healthy and neurological controls and are found to correlate with disease progression

Therefore, recently scientists have proposed neurofilament light chain (NfL) as a potential biomarker of neuroaxonal degeneration in multiple neurological disorders (Nat. Rev. Neurol. 14, 577–589 (2018). Specifically, in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (iPD), several studies have demonstrated a correlation between blood NfL levels and motor and cognitive impairment. Furthermore, baseline serum NfL levels and their longitudinal change have been identified as valuable biomarkers to predict the severity of cognitive decline and the likelihood of developing dementia. Higher NfL levels were associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease dementia.

Such a test will be useful to physicians and neurologists to plan to administer appropriate treatment long before the patients start experiencing Parkinson’s dementia.

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            IMAGINE the world without Parkinson’s, MSA, or Alzheimer’s disease. JUST IMAGINE.