Study Rationale: New imaging tools for Parkinson’s disease (PD) are urgently needed to help accelerate the development of new treatments. A special type of MRI scan, CEST MRI, can detect changes in brain chemicals that are important to the disease. By studying PD over time with CEST MRI, we aim to create new tools to develop treatments faster and for less cost.
Hypothesis: We seek to answer these questions: 1) “Can CEST MRI detect and monitor brain changes caused by PD?”, 2) “Are changes in CEST MRI measures related to brain tissue changes that can be detected and monitored in PD using other advanced MRI methods?”
Study Design: We will collect MRI scans and clinical data from PD patients and age-matched healthy controls at baseline, 9 months, and 18 months. We will analyze the scans to find out whether we can detect and follow PD brain changes with CEST MRI and related advanced MRI methods.
Impact on Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s disease: If successful, this study will yield brain imaging tools that can be used in clinical trial designs to develop new treatments.
Next Steps for Development: We would work with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to help them use these tools to increase the odds of success in their clinical trials