Scientists new method of detecting Parkinson's Disease

British scientists have found a way of using intense light to detect the early stages of Parkinson's Disease in the brains of sufferers, it was disclosed today.

Researchers from Keele University are using the "super-microscope" capabilities of the synchrotron at Harwell, Oxfordshire, to observe iron levels in individual brain cells.

Keele's Dr Joanna Collingwood said the technique could, in the long term, allow early diagnosis of Parkinson's, and improve therapeutic approaches by allowing medical intervention to take place before the cell death of significant numbers of motor neurones.

The synchrotron - or Diamond Light Source - is a vast doughnut-shaped particle accelerator, the size of five football pitches, which fires particles at almost the speed of light before focusing them into a beam with a diameter less than that of a single cell to illuminate the site of experiments.

Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Chicago, Dr Collingwood explained that the distribution of metal ions in the brain tissue of sufferers was altered by the disease process.

By studying the tissue as a whole, it has been possible to map metal distribution throughout the brain region containing the vulnerable motor neurones in Parkinson's Disease in a region where the researchers had earlier shown that iron levels nearly double in individual cells.

She said: "Our studies at Diamond involve a technique called microfocus spectroscopy, in which powerful, tightly focused beams of X-rays penetrate our tissue samples.

"We have been able to investigate human tissue with such precision that metal ions, particularly iron levels, in and around individual cells can be mapped. What makes the microfocus synchrotron approach so unique is that we can also use the focused beam to obtain information about the form in which the iron is stored."

She added: "The technique is pioneering in that it does not change the distribution or form of the metals in the tissue being studied.

"To move this research on into the clinical arena, we need to determine how much the contrast change seen by clinicians in the MRI scan results is directly due to changes in iron distribution and form. Improving our understanding of the biochemical aspects of the disease should in the long term contribute to improved therapeutic approaches and also provide potential openings for early MRI detection and diagnosis.

"Early diagnosis is key because we know that by the time a typical individual presents with the symptoms of the disease, chemical changes have already caused significant cell death of vulnerable motor neurones."