2 Fox Focus | A New Era
Message from the CEO :
Ushering in a New Era for Research
In our last issue of the Fox Focus on Parkinson ’ s , we told you about the extraordinary breakthrough in the development of an imaging tracer for alpha-synuclein — one of the field ’ s toughest challenges — that can illuminate the alpha-synuclein protein , a known culprit in Parkinson ’ s disease ( PD ) pathology , in the living human brain . Today , there are four highly promising imaging tracers in development for Parkinson ’ s — which is greater progress over just three years than had been achieved in the previous decade .
Now , The Michael J . Fox Foundation and our landmark clinical study , the Parkinson ’ s Progression Markers Initiative , are heralding a second major breakthrough in the hunt for biomarkers , or objective measures of disease . Using spinal fluid , researchers have developed a laboratory test that can objectively detect alphasynuclein dysfunction . You can read about the tool and the discovery — and its launching of a new era of research — on p . 5 .
It would be difficult to overstate the impact of this discovery . This new tool allows us to
define Parkinson ’ s disease objectively and biologically — with implications for every aspect of Parkinson ’ s research and care . As so many of you know , until now , we have been limited to subjective clinical assessment of the disease , using rating scales , clinician experience and patients ’ self-reported outcomes .
At MJFF , we have always recognized the need for biomarkers of Parkinson ’ s disease , and we have relentlessly pursued them since our founding , as a goal core to our mission .
Biomarkers will transform clinical care , allowing doctors to diagnose patients in the earliest , pre-symptomatic stages of Parkinson ’ s and tailor treatment to individual cases and disease subtypes . They will revolutionize drug development by making clinical trials smarter , faster and cheaper and inducing greater investment by drugmakers . And , as first-of-their kind drugs move more rapidly through clinical testing , regulators will be able to define approval paths based on changes to underlying biology and objective evidence of treatment effectiveness .