Study Rationale:
Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) both feature debilitating cognitive decline without reliably effective therapies. This dearth of treatment is fueled by a lack of cognitive biomarkers for these disorders.
Hypothesis:
There is a need for biomarkers of PD and DLB that not only correlate with cognition but also capture its complexity.
Study Design:
We will use proteomic strategies on a large collection of plasma samples from two of the largest national repositories (the Parkinson’s Disease Biomarker Program (PDBP) and Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI)) to identify promising blood-based markers of cognitive decline in PD and DLB.
Impact on Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s disease:
We expect these results to yield promising plasma biomarkers and our experimental design will also ensure these markers that could advance the ease and precision of synuclein detection in these conditions.
Next Steps for Development:
Plasma biomarkers that demonstrate both relevance to clinical and pathological disease states will be prioritized with the goal of developing accessible blood-based biomarker tools that advance precision in disease recognition, clinical trial stratification, and gauging therapeutic cognitive responses in PD and DLB.