A minimally invasive biomarker for sensitive and accurate diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

Seeding activities of disease-associated α-synuclein aggregates (αSyn), a hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD), are detectable by seed amplification assay (αSyn-SAA) and being developed as a diagnostic biomarker for PD. Sensitive and accurate αSyn-SAA for blood or saliva would greatly facilitate PD diagnosis. This prospective diagnostic study conducted αSyn-SAA analyses on serum and saliva samples collected from patients clinically diagnosed with PD or healthy controls (HC).

A minimally Invasive Biomarker for Sensitive and Accurate Diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease.

Importance: Parkinson's disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disease, is pathologically characterized by intraneuronal deposition of misfolded alpha-synuclein aggregates (αSyn ). αSyn seeding activities in CSF and skin samples have shown great promise in PD diagnosis, but they require invasive procedures. Sensitive and accurate αSyn seed amplification assay (αSyn-SAA) for more accessible and minimally invasive samples (such as blood and saliva) are urgently needed for PD pathological diagnosis in routine clinical practice.