Sit will soon be possible to predict, before the onset of symptomsthe second most widespread form of neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s, the “Lewy body” disease, which also has among its outcomes Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers from University of Bologna and Lund, in Sweden, have in fact demonstrated that a test on cerebrospinal fluid can detect thealteration of a protein (alpha-synuclein) produced by neurons, which when aggregated forms Lewy bodies, responsible for damaging nerve cells. The novelty is supported by two studies published in Nature medicine.
«In the first research – explains Piero Parchi, professor of neurology, one of the coordinators of the investigations, carried out on a sample of two thousand individuals, it was highlighted that almost 10 percent of those who were asymptomatic at the time of the spinal fluid sampling had Lewy bodies in the brain and in the following years he developed a decline in abilities, cognitive or motor, as in the case of Parkinson’s.
In the second study – continues Parchi – approximately one in four of the 800 subjects tested with cognitive difficulties tested positive for Lewy body disease. The test, if validated, will be able to both predict the pathology in the absence of symptoms and diagnose it more accurately in those who already show them. The diagnosis today, however, is based on the doctor’s clinical evaluation, with the risk of approximations, especially at the onset.” Furthermore, thanks to the test, “it will be possible to select an adequate sample of patients to test targeted drugs”
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