By
Michelle Roberts
Health
editor, BBC News online
Scientists have proposed a new idea for detecting brain conditions
including Alzheimer's - a skin test. Their work, which is at an early stage, found
the same abnormal proteins that accumulate in the brain in such disorders can
also be found in skin. Early diagnosis is key to preventing the loss of brain
tissue in dementia, which can go undetected for years.
But experts said even more advanced tests, including ones of spinal
fluid, were still not ready for clinic. If they were, then doctors could
treatment at the earliest stages, before irreversible brain damage or mental
decline has taken place.
Brain biomarker
Investigators have been hunting for suitable biomarkers in the body -
molecules in blood or exhaled breath, for example, that can be measured to
accurately and reliably signal if a disease or disorder is present.
Dr Ildefonso Rodriguez-Leyva and colleagues from the University of San
Luis Potosi, Mexico, believe skin is a good candidate for uncovering hidden
brain disorders. Skin has the same origin as brain tissue in the developing
embryo and might, therefore, be a good window to what's going on in the mind in
later life - at least at a molecular level - they reasoned.
Post-mortem studies of people with Parkinson's also reveal that the
same protein deposits which occur in the brain with this condition also
accumulate in the skin. To test if the same was true in life as after death,
the researchers recruited 65 volunteers - 12 who were healthy controls and the
remaining 53 who had either Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's or another type of
dementia.
They took a small skin biopsy from behind the ear of each volunteer to
test in their laboratory for any telltale signs of disease. Specifically, they
looked for the presence of two proteins - tau and alpha-synuclein.
The 20 people with Alzheimer's and the 16 with Parkinson's had raised
levels of both these proteins in their skin compared to the healthy controls
and the patients with other types of dementia.
The people with Parkinson's also had higher levels of alpha-synuclein
protein.
Dr Rodriguez-Leyva, who will soon present his findings to the annual
meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, said: "More research is
needed to confirm these results, but the findings are exciting because we could
potentially begin to use skin biopsies from living patients to study and learn
more about these diseases.
"This new test offers a potential biomarker that may allow doctors
to identify and diagnose these diseases earlier on." It could also guide
research into new treatments, he said.
Dr Arthur Roach, Parkinson's UK Director of Research and Development,
said: "This work points to a possible diagnostic test that would be
minimally invasive and could provide earlier, more accurate diagnosis.
"There is still a need for more innovation in this area - at the
moment there's no way to definitively diagnose Parkinson's." Dr Simon
Ridley of Alzheimer's Research UK said it was too early to say if a skin test
would become available.
He said research into biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid - the fluid
that surrounds the brain and spinal cord - was at a more advanced stage, but
that even these methods were not yet close to becoming a routine test.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31585299
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