Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia and the University of Oxford have developed an electronic sensor that detects molecular signs linked to Parkinson’s disease in blood. The study was published in Science Advances and announced on 4 October.
The method first isolates tiny packages that nerve cells release into the bloodstream, then analyses the proteins inside them. At the heart of the sensor is an organic electrochemical transistor, which amplifies very weak biological signals. It measures three forms of alpha-synuclein, a protein linked to Parkinson’s, at very low concentrations in about 40 minutes.
In a blinded evaluation of 57 participants, the platform distinguished disease-associated profiles from healthy controls with 87.7% accuracy. The researchers stress it is not yet a clinical test: the next step is larger, multicentre studies with many more patients.
