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The Telegraph
The Telegraph
National
India McTaggart

New test for Parkinson’s developed after woman sniffed out the disease

Joy Milne - Chris Watt
Joy Milne - Chris Watt

A new Parkinson’s test has been developed after scientists were able to harness the power of a woman who can sniff out the disease.

The test has been years in the making after researchers at Manchester University realised that Joy Milne of Perth, Scotland, could smell the condition.

The academics first began to believe Parkinson's might have a discernible odour when Mrs Milne claimed she detected a change in the odour of her husband, Les, six years before he was diagnosed with the condition.

Mrs Milne, 72, said that her husband’s smell changed subtly to a "musky" aroma years before any difficulty with movement started to emerge. Mr Milne died in 2015 aged 65.

When researchers conducted tests with Mrs Milne, they found she was able to identify people living with Parkinson's from people without the condition just by smelling the t-shirts they had worn.

In preliminary lab work, she was also able to identify that one t-shirt from the group of people without the condition smelled like the disease, and eight months later the individual wearing it was diagnosed with Parkinson's.

Now, the academics at the University of Manchester have made a breakthrough by developing a test which can identify people with the condition by using a simple cotton bud run along the back of the neck.

Researchers can examine the sample to identify molecules linked to the condition to help diagnose whether someone has the disease.

'Curse and a benefit'

Mrs Milne has a rare condition which gives her a heightened sense of smell. She is now working with scientists around the world to see if she can smell other diseases like cancer and tuberculosis (TB).

She described her sense of smell as "a curse and a benefit", saying that she can sometimes smell people who have Parkinson's while in the supermarket or walking down the street, but has been told by medical ethicists she cannot tell them.

"Which GP would accept a man or a woman walking in saying 'the woman who smells Parkinson's has told me I have it'? Maybe in the future but not now," she added.

While still in the early phases of research, scientists are excited about the prospect of the NHS being able to deploy a simple test for Parkinson’s.

There is currently no definitive test for the disease, with diagnosis based on a patient's symptoms and medical history.

If the new skin swab is successful outside laboratory conditions, it could be rolled out to achieve faster diagnosis.

'It has to be detected far earlier'

Mrs Milne said that it was "not acceptable" that people with Parkinson's had such high degrees of neurological damage at the time of diagnosis, adding: "I think it has to be detected far earlier - the same as cancer and diabetes - earlier diagnosis means far more efficient treatment and a better lifestyle for people.

"It has been found that exercise and change of diet can make a phenomenal difference."

She said her husband, a former doctor, was "determined" to find the right researcher to examine the link between odour and Parkinson's, and they sought out Dr Tilo Kunath at the University of Edinburgh in 2012.

Dr Kunath paired up with Professor Perdita Barran to examine Mrs Milne's sense of smell.

The scientists believed that the scent may be caused by a chemical change in skin oil, known as sebum, that is triggered by the disease.

Researchers hoped the finding could lead to a test being developed to detect Parkinson's, working under the assumption that if they were able to identify a unique chemical signature in the skin linked to it, they may eventually be able to diagnose the condition from simple skin swabs.

In 2019, researchers at the University of Manchester, led by Prof Barran, announced that they had identified molecules linked to the disease found in skin swabs and now the scientists have developed a test using this information.

The tests have been successfully conducted in research labs, and scientists are assessing whether they can be used in hospital settings.

If successful, the test could potentially be used in the NHS so GPs can refer patients for Parkinson's tests.

The findings, which have been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, detail how sebum can be analysed with mass spectrometry - a method which weighs molecules - to identify the disease. Some molecules are present only in people who have Parkinson's disease.

Researchers compared swabs from 79 people with Parkinson's with a healthy control group of 71 people.

Prof Barran said: "At the moment, there are no cures for Parkinson's, but a confirmatory diagnostic would allow them to get the right treatment and get the drugs that will help to alleviate their symptoms.

"There would also be non-pharmaceutical interventions, including movement and also nutritional classes, which can really help.

"And I think most critically, it will allow them to have a confirmed diagnosis to actually know what's wrong with them."

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