RESEARCH
THE MICHAEL J . FOX FOUNDATION 2023 YEAR IN REVIEW
+ Identify people with Parkinson ’ s across the continuum of disease , including screening for key early features — severe loss of the sense of smell and / or diagnosis with REM sleep behavioral disorder ( RBD ).
+ Diagnose the disease when dysfunctional biology first starts , well before the onset of visible symptoms . Early detection and treatment will give therapies their greatest chance for success .
+ Advance therapeutic development by making sure the right drugs are being tested in the right people , maximizing the
A Game-Changer for Research : Screening for Disease
The proposed staging system — coupled with a validated biomarker for Parkinson ’ s — brings widespread screening for neurodegenerative diseases one step closer to reality .
Step 1 People who are considered at risk based on age or risk factors like family history would take a simple smell test . Smell loss is an indicator for a range of diseases of aging , including both Parkinson ’ s and Alzheimer ’ s . Particularly poor smell has been shown to be highly correlated with a positive aSyn-SAA test result .
Step 2 People with the poorest sense of smell would take a test ( i . e ., the recently validated biomarker ) to detect the presence of abnormal alphasynuclein . Historically , the presence of these clumps could be confirmed only through postmortem analysis at autopsy .
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