Light 'could detect Parkinson's'

February 15, 2009

The technique allows researchers to map iron levels in individual brain cells

A light as bright as a million-watt bulb could help identify early signs of

Parkinson's disease, British researchers have said.

The Keele University team told a conference that a " super-microscope " could spot

changes in brain cells before the disease destroyed them.

Keele's Dr Joanna Collingwood said that the technique was " pioneering " .

She told the American Association for the Advancement of Science patients could

be treated sooner as a result.

'Early diagnosis'

Dr Collingwood said the team had been using a synchrotron - or Diamond Light

Source (DLS) - at Harwell, Oxfordshire.

The device is a large doughnut-shaped particle accelerator, the size of five

football pitches, which fires particles at just below the speed of light,

focusing them into a beam less than a single cell in diameter.

It allows researchers to to observe iron levels in individual brain cells, which

are affected by Parkinson's.

Dr Collingwood told the AAAS conference in Chicago: " We have been able to

investigate human tissue with such precision that metal ions, particularly iron

levels, in and around individual cells can be mapped.

" The technique is pioneering in that it does not change the distribution or form

of the metals in the tissue being studied. "

She said she hoped that the team's work could help doctors detect early signs of

Parkinson's using MRI.

" Early diagnosis is key because we know that by the time a typical individual

presents with the symptoms of the disease, chemical changes have already caused

significant cell death of vulnerable motor neurones, " she added.

P.S. I wonder if we could use this technology to detect issues such as this in

our ASD kids... Sounds promising!!!

Love, Gabby. :0)

" I know of nobody who is purely Autistic or purely neurotypical. Even God had

some Autistic moments, which is why the planets all spin. " ~ Jerry Newport

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