USask researchers pioneer blood test for rapid Parkinson’s diagnosis

Dr. Chris Phenix (PhD), an associate professor of chemistry in USask’s College of Arts and Science, said rapid detection of aggressive Parkinson’s could lead to better outcomes for patients and provide new insight into the disease for medical researchers.

“Neurologists don’t have too much difficulty in diagnosing Parkinson’s, but the key part of it is that by the time you actually start getting classic Parkinson’s symptoms, like 30 or 40 per cent of the related neurons are already dead. It’s irreversible,” he said. “Being able to rapidly screen for aggressive forms is going to be very helpful because you can start initiating therapies very, very shortly after diagnosis.”

This innovative research project received funding from the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation (SHRF) Solutions Program, which provides support to impactful research addressing timely health needs in Saskatchewan.

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that damages or destroys dopamine-producing neurons and causes movement issues including tremors and muscle stiffness, and can create cognitive impairment in some patients.

Phenix, who grew up in the small town of Arcola, Sask., said his grandmother had Parkinson’s. Seeing the effects of the disease on a family member is one of the reasons Phenix said he was drawn to this area of research.

“It motivated me to get into the world of Parkinson’s disease research to use my expertise to answer important questions in the field,” he said.

According to Phenix, an enzyme in cells called glucocerebrosidase (GCase) displays reduced activity in patients with Parkinson’s, particularly fast-acting and aggressive forms of Parkinson’s.

It can be difficult to see and test neurons – nerve cells in the brain – in living patients. Using unique chemical tools discovered at USask called fluorescent probes, Phenix and his team devised a method that will measure the activity of the enzyme in cells found in the blood. The probes attach to the GCase enzyme and cause them to literally “light up” using a clinical device called flow cytometry.

The newly developed test is convenient because it highlights the activity of enzymes in blood that are related to Parkinson’s but doesn’t require brain scans. It could be a much faster, inexpensive, and more accessible test to screen for the disease. Phenix said the fluorescent probe tool could potentially have results within minutes of the blood test being conducted.

“The activity of the enzyme in white blood cells also appears to drop in Parkinson’s patients. So that gives us a strategy where we could develop a convenient way to measure the enzymes in these blood cells that could mirror the activity in the brain,” Phenix said.

For researchers, Phenix said there is also tremendous value to use a blood test like this for drug trials to identify patients who will have aggressive forms of Parkinson’s. It could enable drug companies to more effectively test new medicines they are developing for the disease and get clearer results in a much quicker manner.

Phenix called the support of SHRF for this kind of research “critical,” and said it was important to show this high-level, high-impact research was happening in Saskatchewan. He credited working with local experts like Dr. Eric Noyes (MD), a neurologist in USask’s College of Medicine and a co-applicant on the project, as being crucial to the success of this kind of research.

“All our probes are Saskatchewan-made, pioneered here, and we are working with local physicians like Dr. Eric Noyes taking these all the way into the clinic here,” he said. “It’s a small, tight-knit community open to working with researchers and getting things done. That’s a unique strength.”

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