Brain Foundation Research News

Neuroscientists’ Early Research Funded by Brain Foundation Explores Potential New Test for Early Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease

In 2001, a research team comprising 17 neuroscientists from seven hospitals approached the Brain Foundation with an application for funding for a start-up project that would test the proposition that very early diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease can be made through testing olfactory dysfunction and the measurement of certain immune responses in blood.

The Brain Foundation, which receives no government support for its research programs and has to raise monies through community fundraising, awarded a then-record amount of $75,000 to the researchers. This grant supported early research on the project: “A potential new test for diagnosing early dopamine cell loss: an initial screening analysis with risk factor assessment.”

The Diagnosing Early Dopaminergic Cell Loss (DEDCeL) research group comprises NSW-based neuroscientists and neurologists with an interest in Parkinson’s Disease, led by Dr Kay Double (Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute) and Dr Dominic Rowe (Royal North Shore Hospital). Others to take part in the initial research included and who have gone on to publish with Drs Double and Rowe include Dr Michael Hayes (Concord Hospital), Dr Daniel Chan (Bankstown Hospital), Dr Jeff Blackie (John Hunter Hospital), Dr Alistair Corbett (Concord Hospital), Dr Ron Joffe (Royal North Shore Hospital), Dr Victor Fung (Westmead Hospital), Associate Professor John Morris (Westmead Hospital), and Associate Professor Glenda Halliday (Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute).

Dr Kay Double says: “We thank the Brain Foundation for their foresight in recognising the potential of this research, and providing us with the vital seeding funding we required. It is only with such support that we can continue our research, which aims to find better treatments for sufferers of Parkinson’s Disease, and ultimately to prevent the disease.”

The research has been very successful, and has resulted in a paper which will be published in 2003 in the prestigious Archives of Neurology journal, “Identifying the pattern of olfactory deficits in Parkinson’s Disease using the Brief Smell Identification Test (B-SIT).

The main focus of the research, however, is the development of a novel blood test for Parkinson’s Disease. The results of the project funded by the Brain Foundation has resulted in the research team’s successful application for an Australian PCT patent on the test which has been published internationally. This in turn has assisted two of the researchers, Dr Kay Double and Dr Dominic Rowe, to successfully apply for a Development Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council in 2002. This three-year grant will support further clinical research on the test.

The research have also been successful in attracting the support of Roche Diagnostics (Germany), with whom they now have a formal collaborative research contract for the further development of the test in their laboratories in Germany. Roche are the largest company in the world developing biomedical diagnostics and their expertise and facilities will be critical in refining the test as it is being developed.

In the next few years, the researchers hope, in collaboration with Roche, to complete the research and validation required that will enable the test to be accepted as a diagnostic tool for Parkinson’s Disease. The availability of such an objective test would enable more accurate, earlier diagnoses to be made, ensuring that patients receive the most appropriate treatment as early as possible.

Date created: 27 February 2003