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Newly Identified Molecule In Brain May Indicate Risk Of Parkinson's Disease October 3, 2001 CHICAGO (Reuters Health) - A possible new marker for Parkinson's disease may give physicians the ability to diagnose and treat this degenerative condition at much earlier stages, according to research presented here Monday at the 126th annual meeting of the American Neurological Association. The newly discovered molecule, 1-acetyl-6,7-dihydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline (ADTIQ), was detected in the brains of four Parkinson's disease patients on postmortem analysis. The possibly neurotoxic chemical was less concentrated in the brains of three people who had died without Parkinson's disease. Dr. Yulin Deng of the University of Saskatchewan told meeting attendees that the difference in ADTIQ levels between controls and Parkinson's disease patients was statistically significant. For instance, the mean level in putamen of Parkinson's disease patients was 11.32 nmol/gm compared with 4.94 nmol/gm in controls. One of the co-investigators, Dr. Ali M. Rajput, said ADTIQ may be a toxic byproduct of an error in the metabolism of dopamine. "Levels of both dopamine and ADTIQ were lower when disease was more advanced, which would indicate that in the early phases, there will be higher levels of ADTIQ because there's a higher level of dopamine...it's correlating with the dopamine levels." If these findings are confirmed, said Dr. Rajput, ADTIQ might be used as a diagnostic marker. "Furthermore, if ADTIQ is found to trigger Parkinson's disease by damaging nerves, it might be possible to develop therapies that block this abnormal metabolic pathway." A next crucial step for the research team is to determine whether levels of ADTIQ can be detected in the blood, urine or cerebrospinal fluid. "If we can detect this compound in fluids...which are easily accessible, and correlate it with the severity of Parkinson's disease, it would become the first biological marker for Parkinson's disease," said Dr. Deng. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn