Researchers from Mayo Clinic Arizona and Banner Sun Health Research Institute are working together on a diagnostic test to identify early Parkinson's disease in patients thanks to a $152,486 grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Currently, there is no accurate diagnostic test for early Parkinson's disease. The researchers believe that a procedure termed transcutaneous submandibular gland biopsy may prove to provide the needed accuracy. The test involves inserting a needle into the submandibular gland, located under the jaw, and then withdrawing the needle to obtain the core of gland tissue within. The researchers will look for a protein in the cells from patients who have early Parkinson's disease and compare this to subjects without the disease. The researchers have previously found the protein in subjects with advanced Parkinson's disease (>5 years) and now are studying people with early Parkinson's (<5 years).
All subjects who participate in this study must first have a neurological research exam visit at Mayo Clinic Arizona by Charles Adler, MD PhD, Professor of Neurology and principal investigator of the study. They will then undergo a radioactive scan that detects brain signs of the disease followed by the submandibular gland biopsy. The biopsy is an outpatient procedure done in the office at Mayo Clinic. The biopsy tissue will then be tested for the Parkinson's disease protein at Banner Sun Health Research Institute by Thomas Beach, MD, PhD, the co-principal investigator of the study. The study requires that participants be 18 to 85 years old and have Parkinson's disease for less than five years.
"We're hoping our biopsy will be 80 to 90-percent accurate in these early-stage patients, just like it was for the later-stage patients," said Thomas Beach, MD, PhD, who is the senior scientist and director of the Civin Lab for Neuropathology at Banner Sun Health Research Institute. "This study is critical because we can then try to stop it (Parkinson's) in its early stage." The procedure may also be useful in guiding the selection of patients for experimental therapies.
"There is currently no diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease," said study principal investigator Charles Adler, MD, PhD. "We have previously shown in some patients with advanced Parkinson's, as well as in autopsies of Parkinson's patients, that the abnormal proteins associated with Parkinson's are consistently found in the submandibular saliva glands, found under the lower jaw. Making a diagnosis in living patients will be a big step forward in our effort to understand and better treat patients."
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