Researchers have developed a blood test that they say could help neurologists detect Parkinson's disease and track the illness as it progresses.

The researchers say they've found 2 genetic markers that are 90% effective at indicating the presence of Parkinson's disease. The markers are related to how the body processes glucose and insulin,

The team tracked 101 people with Parkinson's and 91 healthy people. They found that gene expression changed significantly over 3 years in the Parkinson's patients. It's not clear whether Parkinson's causes changes in the genes or if the genes actually contribute to the development of Parkinson's, the researchers said. Both genes are associated with diabetes, and scientists suspect there may be a link between the two diseases.

http://www.hcplive.com/articles/Biom....eRAJUAji.dpuf

Thanks for that link Tupelo3.

PNAS has a high impact factor (about 10). That means that the average paper in it is cited about ten times per year in other papers - PNAS is a very reputable journal.

The paper looks very interesting but whether its findings turn out to be important for clinical management of Parkinson's Disease remains to be seen.

Sure seems like an accurate blood test could be used to quickly determine the effectiveness of drugs to treat the root cause of Parkinson's, which sure seems to be alpha synuclein buildup!