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The company also announced receipt of an award from The Michael J. FoxFoundation for Parkinson's Research supporting further development of itstechnology platform to validate its PD diagnostic methodology.
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"The lack of an objective biomarker to aid diagnosis and therapeuticsdevelopment is one of the single greatest challenges facing the Parkinson'sresearch field," said Katie Hood, CEO of The Michael J. Fox Foundation. "Weare enthusiastic about helping to keep Molecular Biometrics' novel metabolomicdiagnostic technology moving forward toward validation and clinical testing."
Researchers at Molecular Biometrics, Lady Davis Institute (LDI), SirMortimer B. Davis - Jewish General Hospital and McGill University have shownthat, using biospectroscopy methods to create a specific biomarker profile,they can distinguish idiopathic Parkinson's disease from normal aging andother neurodegenerative conditions. Diagnosis of PD is currently based solelyon a patient's medical history and neurological examination, makingParkinson's difficult to diagnose, particularly during early stages of thedisease.
"We created a biomarker profile, using biospectroscopy techniques, todelineate a chemical signature in blood that identifies patients withParkinson's disease," said Hyman M. Schipper, MD, PhD, FRCPC, lead author ofthe study and member of the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurology andNeurosurgery, and Department of Medicine, McGill University, and member of theAttending Staff in Neurology at Sir Mortimer B. Davis - Jewish GeneralHospital, in Montreal, Canada. "This proof-of-concept gives us great hopethat biospectroscopy will offer a new approach to the early diagnosis ofParkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders." Dr Schipper is anoted expert in brain aging and neurodegeneration, and a Founding Scientistand Medical Director (Neurosciences) at Molecular Biometrics.
In the study, fifty-two patients, 20 with mild or moderate stages ofParkinson's disease and 32 age-matched control subjects were recruited at theJewish General Hospital. Whole blood samples were analyzed using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy (RS) methods which havepreviously been used to create metabolomic profiles (chemical signatures) ofhuman biofluids, including serum and whole blood.
Both NIR and RS methods were applied to measure the degree of oxidativestress (OS) present in each sample. OS has been considered to be a potentialbiomarker for Parkinson's disease. However, to date, chemical markers have notproven sufficiently robust to serve as an accurate or reliable biomarker ofthe disease. OS is caused by a chemical imbalance that can damage criticalcomponents of a cell, including proteins, lipids and DNA. OS is known to beinvolved in many diseases, including PD and Alzheimer's disease. The datafrom this study showed that the two independent biospectroscopy measurementtechniques yielded similar and consistent results. In differentiatingParkinson's disease patients from the control group, RS achieved a sensitivityof 74% and specificity of 72%, with eight false positives and four falsenegatives. NIR achieved a sensitivity of 74% and specificity of 76%, with fourfalse positives and five false negatives.
"We are greatly encouraged by these results and will continue our researchand development efforts to further explore the application of
