A research involving scientists from the University of Alicante and the United States finds out that the accumulation of alpha-synuclein protein in the retina is a good biomarker to help detect Parkinson’s disease and its severity degree. This work has been published in ‘Movement Disorders’, a prestigious journal in the field of clinical neurology published by the International Association of Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders, and is part of a broader scientific project funded by the Michael J Foundation. Fox.
The main researcher of the project, which began in February 2015, is Dr. Nicolás Cuenca, coordinator of the research group “Visual System of Neurobiology and Therapy of Neurodegenerative Diseases” at the University of Alicante (UA). Dr. Thomas Beach of the Sun Banner Health Research Institute in Sun City, Arizona (USA), as well as experts from Arizona State University and the Mayo Clinic. The work is novel worldwide because it has been carried out with retinas of deceased Parkinson’s patients. Those were donated to Sun Banner, a center dedicated to the research of this pathology and Alzheimer’s disease, and sent to the UA to be studied by Cuenca at the UA.
More information: UA