Professor David Allsop
Professor of Neuroscience
Office C38
Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences
Faculty of Health and Medicine
Lancaster University
Lancaster
LA1 4YQ
UK
Tel: +44 1524 592122
Fax: +44 1524 593192
E-mail: d.allsop@lancaster.ac.uk
Simple blood test diagnoses Parkinson's disease long before symptoms appear
New research in the FASEB Journal suggests that phosphorylated alpha-synuclein, a substance found in the blood of Parkinson's patients, could lead to definitive diagnostic tool
Bethesda, MD—A new research report appearing in the December issue of the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) shows how scientists from the United Kingdom have developed a simple blood test to detect Parkinson's disease even at the earliest stages. The test is possible because scientists found a substance in the blood, called "phosphorylated alpha-synuclein," which is common in people with Parkinson's disease, and then developed a way to identify its presence in our blood.
"A blood test for Parkinson's disease would mean you could find out if a person was in danger of getting the disease, before the symptoms started," said David Allsop, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences and the School of Health and Medicine at the University of Lancaster, in Lancaster, UK. "This would help the development of medicines that could protect the brain, which would be better for the quality of life and future health of older people."
To develop the blood test for Parkinson's disease, Allsop and colleagues studied a group of people diagnosed with the disease and a second group of healthy people of a similar age. Blood samples from each group were analyzed to determine the levels of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein present. They found those with Parkinson's disease had increased levels of the substance. Based upon these findings, researchers developed a blood test that detects the presence of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein, which could allow for diagnosis of the disease well before symptoms appear but when brain damage has already begun to occur.
"When most people think of Parkinson's disease, they think of the outward symptoms, such as involuntary movements," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, "but many people with Parkinson's also develop neurological problems that may be more difficult to detect right away. Having a blood test not only helps doctors rule out other possible causes of the outward symptoms, but it also allows for early detection which can help patients and their caregivers prepare for the possibility of the mental, emotional, and behavioral problems that the disease can cause."
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02 December 2011
MICRIMA Ltd. BRISTOL UNIVERSITY developed MARIA BREAST IMAGING SYSTEM
Technology
Introducing the MARIA imaging system
Breast tumours may be distinguished from normal breast tissue by their dielectric value. This has led to various attempts to exploit this property for imaging. These attempts include early work at Bristol dating back to 1992.
In recent years, a novel breast imaging technique has been developed based upon a synthetically-focussed but real-aperture multistatic radar and is known as MARIA (Multistatic Array processing for Radiowave Image Acquisition).
An ultra wideband pulse is synthesized using a Vector Network Analyser that sweeps in frequency from 4GHz to 10GHz. The signal is transmitted from each element in a multiple antenna array and then received by all the other elements. The large aperture and wide bandwidth theoretically allow collection of reflected and scattered signals from objects as small as 1.7mm.
The transmitted radiowave signal has a peak power of less than 1mW, the public limits for exposure to radiowaves are not even approached and hence the technology is intrinsically safe and is freely-repeatable.
The technique was initially validated through highly-sophisticated computational models before moving on to experimental validation in complex breast phantoms (models of the breast using simulated tissues with literature dielectric values for skin, fat, and tumour).
Introducing the MARIA imaging system
Breast tumours may be distinguished from normal breast tissue by their dielectric value. This has led to various attempts to exploit this property for imaging. These attempts include early work at Bristol dating back to 1992.
In recent years, a novel breast imaging technique has been developed based upon a synthetically-focussed but real-aperture multistatic radar and is known as MARIA (Multistatic Array processing for Radiowave Image Acquisition).
An ultra wideband pulse is synthesized using a Vector Network Analyser that sweeps in frequency from 4GHz to 10GHz. The signal is transmitted from each element in a multiple antenna array and then received by all the other elements. The large aperture and wide bandwidth theoretically allow collection of reflected and scattered signals from objects as small as 1.7mm.
The transmitted radiowave signal has a peak power of less than 1mW, the public limits for exposure to radiowaves are not even approached and hence the technology is intrinsically safe and is freely-repeatable.
The technique was initially validated through highly-sophisticated computational models before moving on to experimental validation in complex breast phantoms (models of the breast using simulated tissues with literature dielectric values for skin, fat, and tumour).
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