New Biomarkers in Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and its prevalence is expected to double over the next 30 years, making it a leading cause of neurological disability \[GBD 2016 Neurology Collaborators, 2019; Dorsey et al, 2018\]. PD is characterized by motor symptoms, such as muscle stiffness, tremor, slowness of movement (bradykinesia) and postural instability, and non-motor symptoms, such as sphincter disorders, postural hypotension, cognitive disorders, depression, hyposmia, constipation and REM sleep behavioral disturbance. Unfortunately, the mechanisms leading to neuronal dysfunction and death in PD remain poorly known and there are currently no therapies capable of modifying their course \[Bloem et al, 2021\]. In this study we aim at defining a new set of biomarkers based on the combination between PET, blood metabolomics and natural language extracted from the keywords of electronic health records.