Todd Levine, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of CND Life Sciences was interviewed last month about the Syn-One Test® in a three-part series on the Lewy Body Roller Coaster podcast.
Dr. Levine spoke with Wendy Cogan about the challenges of getting an accurate diagnosis of Lewy body dementia. She stated that her husband was initially diagnosed with major depression and then bipolar disorder. A severe drug reaction prompted a visit to a neurologist, and Wendy’s husband was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. As his symptoms worsened, he was given a DATscan, which led to the diagnosis of Lewy body dementia. “Once we got the right diagnosis, we were able to get him on the right medicine …The delirium was totally gone, he became functional again, and our quality of life significantly improved.”
However, Wendy’s husband starting exhibiting symptoms that weren’t classic of Lewy body dementia, and his doctor suspected corticobasal syndrome. After consulting another neurologist at Mayo Clinic, Wendy and her husband decided to do the Syn-One Test. “It was very easy,” and the results of the test provided them with visual proof of a synucleinopathy.
Because of the test results, Wendy’s husband is now being evaluated for participation in a clinical trial for a potential treatment, a point underscored by Dr. Levine. “We’re in an exciting era of finding treatments for these diseases. To properly test treatments that target the abnormal, phosphorylated form of alpha-synuclein, clinical trials must enroll participants with a known synucleinopathy. Otherwise, these drugs may appear not to work, simply because they’re being tested in the wrong patients.”
Dr. Levine notes two more advantages of the Syn-One Test. The first is the sense of closure it can provide to patients and their families. Once a diagnosis is reached, patients may not need continued testing or to seek out more doctors. The second advantage is that, even though there is no cure for synucleinopathies, a positive test result can allow symptoms to be treated properly.
