"Parkinson's cure 'inevitable'

The other day I got sent a link to an article in a website called Labiotec.  Nothing unusual about this, friends and family are always sending me articles promising a breakthrough or new treatment. This one had the bold headline  

"Parkinson’s cure ‘inevitable’ after biomarker breakthrough"!

A cure is what all Parkinson's patients are hoping for and, in fairness, of all the cruel neurological conditions there are, it is the one with the greatest grounds for optimism.

So what is this all about? Well the article is referring to what is claimed to be an important break through and says in a very excited manner;

"The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) has announced what it says is the ‘most significant breakthrough yet’ in the search for a Parkinson’s biomarker: a biological test for Parkinson’s disease."

It then details what this means. The test;

"differentiates molecular subtypes and detects disease in individuals before cardinal movement symptoms arise".

In short, if I understand correctly, it recognises the different types of Parkinson's and does so before motor symptoms become visible.

It is not a cure, but the hope is that it will aid the hunt for a cure. How realistic is this? Does the headline have substance, or is it just hype?

Well let's start with what was actually said 

"When we started PPMI, (Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative), we weren’t casting about for fish — we were going after a whale. Now, here we are. Together, we are making a cure for Parkinson’s inevitable.”

Michael J. Fox

Well not yet inevitable, but going that way. Well let's hope he's right, but does it?

Well we need to acknowledge that it is always good to be able to diagnose Parkinson's, like any disease, as early as possible.

It has also to be stated that from what I understand and have been told, one of the big problems in the field of Parkinson's research is that very little is currently known of the early stages of Parkinson's and how / when it starts. Therapies have a better chance of being successful, the earlier treatment can commence and if you can understand the early stages better, it might even become possible to start thinking of prevention.

But hold on before we all get too excited, we need to add a bit of caution to all this. 

There are other brain conditions where I have been advised we do know pretty much everything about the early stages. In Huntington's for example, we have 100% accurate diagnosis and we know from their birth just about, whether someone would get it and yet, we still do not have a cure. 

Having the information about the early stages and being able to diagnose before any symptoms appear does not make finding a cure "inevitable". 

Or at least not yet.

That does not mean that we won't find a cure for Parkinson's. It just means we can't be certain yet that we will and if we do it may take a lot longer than the headline may have caused readers to believe.

Finding a cure is not yet imminent or inevitable.

In addition the article makes the following statement;

"if a person tests positive [...] they likely have Parkinson’s or a related disorder of alpha-synuclein, such as dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) or multiple system atrophy (MSA)",

Put simply this means that despite this new development, we still do not have a completely accurate picture and some people will continue to be misdiagnosed.

So reasons to be cautious as well as excited. A lot more work needs to be done.

My main issue with this article, isn't actually what is being said, it's what the headline implies. That with this development, a cure is now inevitable. It isn't, it is closer to being, but we aren't there yet.

And the Michael J Fox foundation isn't saying that it is.

There is a lot of people desperate for a cure, and they need to have hope, but it has to be real, sober, hope and the headline isn't offering this 

It is still a good article and the progress is substantial.

Well worth a read.