http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-sbt113011.php

It will be interesting to see where this goes. Right now I'd say a holding pattern; who would want to learn that years before symptoms begin when we have no way to halt progression or even slow it down. Why can't they in the meanwhile, refocus on those of us already diagnosed and market it as a more definitive diagnosis or to clinicians to use establish as a diagnostic standard. Given that we have nothing they could totally capitalize on that.

Laura

This looks pretty interesting. And, it is exactly the kind of finding that needs to be validated. This is where PPMI (more info at http://www.michaeljfox.org/living_PPMI.cfm) comes in. Our team is in the process of reaching out to the UK-based investigators to encourage them to apply to get samples from the PPMI database to take their finding to the next level of investigation without having to start a larger new study cohort. The PPMI resource saves time and money.

The PPMI database includes extensive, standardized longitudinal clinical, biological and imaging data from PD patients and controls and is a resource for the whole community. Even though the PPMI study will be underway for several more years, data and samples are available in real time. Since data access was launched earlier this year, over 4000 download requests have been received. We are very excited that the field is valuing this critical information.

Debi

i'd want to know if pd ran in my family/gene pool or i had done things in my life that might have increased my chances of developing pd, like chemical exposure. as long as i wouldn't be discriminated against financially or by employers. i assume drug companies would be more incentivized to do research on preventive treatments once a an early diagnostic test was developed. otherwise, it's testing on huge populations, impractical. plus early treatment would lkely be much more doable since we have so many more neurons to work with. every person detected with early pd has a fighting chance, they can conduct their own personal trial if they want, especially those billionaires. and the pd research support in general would increase and that would benefit all pd'ers imho.
in addition, even with no current progression delaying treatment, early detection would have the major societal benefit of more accurately detecting what lifestyles, jobs, etc. may promote pd that we can change.