Peripheral biomarkers profile in patients with parkinsonisms

Abstract

Background: Neurodegenerative diseases are increasing their prevalence in world population, so the search for new diagnostic methods has become an important necessity. Parkinson's disease (PD) as well as other forms of parkinsonisms are classified as protein misfolding diseases and evaluation of proteins like tau, alpha-synuclein (A-syn), Amyloid Beta peptide (AB) and AB precursor protein (ABPP) have been considered as biomarkers. Methods: Three groups of subjects were recruited: PD (n = 30), Parkinson plus (n = 20) and control subjects (n = 20). Complete clinical evaluations including transcranial sonography and olfactory test were made. Blood platelets tau and ABPP were evaluated and A-syn was measured in saliva with Western blot and ELISA assays. Biomarkers profiles in different groups were compared with multivariate analyses. Results: We describe differences in protein profiles, in particular in platelet tau between PD, Parkinson plus and control groups. It is possible to generate and associate peripheral protein profiles to standard diagnostic tests to increase diagnostic accuracy. Conclusion: Peripheral protein profiles may serve as non-invasive biomarkers for diagnosis and follow up in parkinsonisms. This work was funded by FONDECYT 11130233 grant.