Hopes for the Future in Controlling Parkinson's

"Funding pioneering studies like this has the potential to throw Parkinson’s into a completely new light."
"It’s very early days in the research, but if it’s proved there is a unique odour associated with Parkinson’s, particularly early on in the condition, it could have a huge impact. Not just on early diagnosis, but it would also make it a lot easier to identify people to test drugs that may have the potential to slow, or even stop Parkinson’s, something no current drug can achieve."
Dr Arthur Roach, Director of Research, Parkinson’s UK

"The sampling of the skin surface will provide a rich source of metabolites which we can mine to distinguish healthy patients from those in the early stages of Parkinson’s. We are excited to embark on this biomarker discovery project. It is hoped that these results could lead to the development of a non-invasive diagnostic test that may have the ability to diagnose early Parkinson’s – possibly even before physical symptoms occur."
"It's very humbling as a mere measurement scientist to have this ability to help find some signature molecules to diagnose Parkinson's. It wouldn't have happened without Joy [Joy Milne of Perth, Scotland]. For all the serendipity, it was Joy and Les who were absolutely convinced that what she could smell would be something that could be used in a clinical context and so now we are beginning to do that."
Professor Perdita Barran and her team at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB)

Joy first detected the odour on her husband Les, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's at the age of 45

How strange, the many permutations of diseases and their markers. Patients suffering from Parkinson's disease have been identified with impaired olfactory sense resulting from Parkinson's. Olfactory dysfunction appears to be a pre-onset sign of Parkinson's. Yet how strange it is that a detectable odour in people with Parkinson's, both before and after diagnosis of the symptoms, has been discovered thanks to one woman's discerning sense of smell when her husband was entering the diagnostic period of Parkinson's onset.

Joy Milne of Perth, Scotland was  absolutely certain she detected a change in her husband's personal odour a full six years prior to his diagnosis with Parkinson's. According to the now-67-year-old woman, her husband's characteristic odour underwent an alteration, subtle as it was, that she could detect long before he experienced any difficulty with movement. Her husband, Les Milne, after living for 20 years with Parkinson's following his diagnosis, died at age 65 in 2015.

Now this woman whose acute sense of smell and identification of an odour she linked with Parkinson's has led scientists toward a discovery of ten molecules which may lead to the first diagnostic test for this condition, as researchers at Manchester University became convinced that a discernible odour emanated from people with Parkinson's. Initially, researchers tested Mrs. Milne to verify her claim of detecting Parkinson's by odour.

She was exposed to skin swabs from groups of people living with Parkinson's, and those without the condition. And by smelling each she was able to accurately determine who suffered from Parkinson's and who did not, in a blind test. Among those who had Parkinson's, according to Mrs. Milne, was one of those whose sample was included but was not yet diagnosed because at that early stage no symptoms had been manifested.

The ten molecules appearing in high concentration on the skin swabs from Parkinson's patients have since been identified by the researchers. One in 500 people in Canada and Britain is affected by Parkinson's, causing deterioration of neurons in a specific portion of the brain. The condition leaves people struggling to move and even to speak or sleep. No definitive tests are currently in use; symptoms begin typically at the time when over half of the nerve cells in the brain have been lost to the disease.

Dr. Tilo Kunarth also tested Mrs. Milne's diagnostic ability through smell alone at Edinburgh University, confirming her ability to detect the condition. Given a dozen unmarked Tee-shirts to smell, six having been worn by Parkinson's patients, the other six worn by volunteers absent the disease, she correctly identified all those with the condition. "She was telling us that this individual had Parkinson's before he knew; before anybody knew", explained Dr. Kunath.

Speculation is that dogs could be trained to sniff out the disease if the molecules are correctly identified. And from there doctors could use the mass spectrometry analytical technique.