Transcriptomic profiling of lymphoid cell subpopulations. Credit score: Mind (2025). DOI: 10.1093/mind/awaf066
Parkinson’s illness is finest recognized for its results on the central nervous system. As well as, current scientific advances typically emphasize the function of the immune system within the presence and improvement of the illness.
In a examine printed in Mind, researchers led by Université de Montréal affiliate professor of neuroscience Martine Tétreault present that some cell sorts within the immune system are activated extra in sufferers who’ve Parkinson’s.
“Thanks to a new technology called single-cell RNA-seq, we can differentiate the cellular subtypes and observe gene expression at the cellular level for each cell,” defined Tétreault, a analysis scientist on the CRCHUM, Université de Montréal’s affiliated hospital analysis middle.
“We found that in Parkinson’s patients, immune cells in the blood were activated and overexpressed genes associated with stress responses,” she mentioned. “Together, these biomarkers form the signature of the disease.”
Tétreault performed the examine with three co-first authors: Gaël Moquin-Beaubry, a former postdoctoral fellow in her lab, and present Ph.D. candidates Lovatiana Andriamboavonjy and Sébastien Audet.
Noting the present lack of scientific biomarkers wanted to diagnose Parkinson’s, the researchers imagine that figuring out the illness’s distinctive signature might assist scientific groups diagnose it early on, from a blood pattern.
The set of biomarkers might additionally make it simpler to tell apart the illness from different comparable uncommon illnesses, particularly Parkinsonian syndromes resembling progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and a number of system atrophy (MSA).
14 sufferers examined
Of their examine, the analysis workforce analyzed blood samples from 14 CHUM sufferers with a confirmed prognosis of Parkinson’s and 6 sufferers presenting with Parkinsonian syndromes, evaluating them with a management group of 10 wholesome individuals.
“In our study, the gene signature of the disease allowed us to distinguish between patients with Parkinson’s disease and those with Parkinsonian syndromes,” mentioned Tétreault. “These biomarkers could improve diagnostic reliability or facilitate participant selection for clinical trials testing the efficacy of a drug for this disease.”
Her analysis workforce is now making accessible to different scientists an entire atlas of immune system mobile subtypes present in wholesome people and folks with Parkinson’s.
In 2024, roughly 110,000 Canadians have been residing with Parkinson’s illness. By 2034, that quantity is predicted to develop to round 150,000.
Extra data:
Gael Moquin-Beaudry et al, Mapping the peripheral immune panorama of Parkinson’s illness sufferers with single-cell sequencing, Mind (2025). DOI: 10.1093/mind/awaf066
Journal data:
Mind
Offered by
College of Montreal Hospital Analysis Centre (CRCHUM)
Quotation:
Diagnosing Parkinson’s utilizing a blood-based genetic signature (2025, Could 28)
retrieved 28 Could 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-05-parkinson-blood-based-genetic-signature.html
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