In Parkinson's, hands and legs tremble, the body becomes stiff, and there is difficulty in maintaining balance. Now, its treatment will be possible soon. Let us tell you about it in detail.

Parkinson's disease is a neurological disease. Now there is going to be a big change in its identification and treatment. Recently, research published in Nature Aging claims that a new RNA-based blood test can detect the disease even before symptoms like trembling of hands and legs or difficulty in walking start. This means that now it will be easier to diagnose patients at the initial stage.

How does a blood test work?

This test is based on small fragments of tRNA (Transfer RNA). Earlier, tRNA was only associated with the process of making proteins, but now research has revealed that its fragments can also provide information about the disease.

Researchers found two special biomarkers

• Nuclear tRNA fragment, which is higher in Parkinson's patients.
• Mitochondrial tRNA fragment, which is decreased in patients.

The ratio of these two determines whether the person is normal, in the initial stage, or in the advanced stage. In a large study, the accuracy of this test was 86 percent.

Why is this discovery special?

Till now, Parkinson's has been detected only when symptoms appear. But this blood test:

• It is much cheaper than other treatments 
• This will help in detecting the disease faster
• Apart from this, the test process is done using only a blood sample (minimally invasive).

This test may be useful for people who are at higher risk of Parkinson's, such as those with a genetic condition, REM sleep disorder, or early loss of smell.

FDA Approval and Future

More trials will be conducted on this test. But recently the FDA has approved a blood test for Alzheimer's disease, which gives hope that the Parkinson test may also get approval soon. In the future, this test can be used not only for diagnosis but also for tracking disease progression and seeing the effect of treatment. If all goes well, this test can become a part of a routine health checkup. Researchers believe that in the near future, this test will be tested on a larger scale. Also, it will be made more accurate by adding more biomarkers to it. In the future, combined with genetic testing and brain imaging, it can become a powerful diagnostic tool.