Gut protein misfolding may spot Parkinson’s years before symptoms
WHY IT MATTERS
If validated, routine gut biopsies could identify Parkinson's disease risk years before symptoms appear, potentially allowing earlier intervention when treatments might be most effective.
Researchers found that simple gut biopsies might detect signs of Parkinson's disease years before a person develops movement problems or other symptoms. They discovered that more than half of people with digestive issues but no diagnosed neurological disease showed protein misfolding in their gut tissue. This could allow doctors to identify people at high risk for Parkinson's much earlier than currently possible.
Routine gut biopsies may turn up evidence of protein misfolding, predicting the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease years before neurological symptoms appear, a study suggested. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen, NHS Grampian, and NHS Highland found that more than half of people who had digestive symptoms but no diagnosed neurological disease […] The post Gut protein misfolding may spot Parkinson’s years before symptoms appeared first o