subject: Collaboration Announced To Help Identify Pd Biomarkers [print this page] Work is underway to help find new biomarkers linked to the progression of Parkinson's disease (PD). The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) has announced that it has teamed up with The Kinetics Foundation in an attempt to discover how a new innovative computer-based device could be used in the fight against Parkinson's disease by better measuring specific motor characteristics of the condition.
The collaboration between the two organisations will form part of the MJFF's Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), a five year programme which was established with the specific aim of finding biomarkers which can help to plot the progression of Parkinson's disease. Biomarkers have become integral to clinical research in countries all over the world and are being used to drastically improve knowledge in relation to a wide variety of conditions. They are measurable physical traits that can be associated with the presence of a disease or the risk of contracting one. By looking at the way biomarkers change, researchers attempt to predict how the condition is progressing which can allow medical specialists to offer the patient more specialised treatment.
Dr Ken Marek, who is the PPMI's principal investigator and the president and senior scientist at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders in Connecticut, said subjects involved in PPMI study projects are currently undergoing tests which focus on clinical symptoms, brain imaging and biological samples. He said the collaboration with The Kinetics Foundation will provide researchers with an "additional strategy" and allow them to measure motor function. He added that the computer-based device may prove to be a simple way of measuring the progression of Parkinson's disease in the home, as opposed to a clinical setting.
Currently, attempts to measure the severity of Parkinson's disease are done using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. This however relies on subjective clinical opinion, unlike the computer-based device which uses finger tapping and peg-transfer exercises to measure dexterity. It is suggested that because the method is objective it is capable of more accurately measuring the severity of the disease by testing changes in reaction time. It is hoped that the method could help to reduce the cost of testing as part of clinical trials, something that is particularly relevant due to the world economic situation.
Dr Marek added that the discovery of a biomarker for Parkinson's disease could lead to medical experts being able to make more accurate diagnoses, as well as allow them to monitor the progression of the disease and gauge how effective various methods of treatment are proving to be.
