Technique predicts brain disorders

Rochester, Minn -- U.S. scientists have created a new way to predict brain aging disorders, such as Parkinson's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Mayo Clinic researchers studied common variations within axon guidance pathway genes and identified several variations that collectively predicted people who are at a high risk for ALS. They also identified several gene variations that predicted people at a high risk for Parkinson's disease.

The researchers said the probability their findings were by chance is less than one in a trillion.

"The mission of our research is to predict, prevent and halt brain aging disorders," said Dr. Demetrius Maraganore. "I envision a day when we will be able to do a simple blood test and predict whether a person is at high risk to develop brain aging disorders such as ALS, Parkinson's disease and even Alzheimer's disease by studying common gene variations in disease pathways.

"In persons at high risk, we may be able to prevent the diseases or slow or halt their progression by developing drugs that target the same disease pathways," Maraganore said. "For ALS and Parkinson's disease, our study is a major step in these directions."

The study appears in the online journal PLoS One.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.