Dr. Christopher Gibbons was interviewed by Dr. Jason Crowell last week on the Neurology^® podcast about a recently published paper he co-authored titled “Cutaneous α-Synuclein Signatures in Patients With Multiple System Atrophy and Parkinson Disease.”

Phosphorylated alpha-synuclein can be detected in the cutaneous nerve fibers of patients with any one of a family of neurodegenerative disorders called synucleinopathies. “Our question was is there a pathological signature that helps to differentiate amongst these different subtypes of synucleinopathies?” explained Dr. Gibbons. The study used CND Life Sciences’ Syn-One Test^® to evaluate the alpha-synuclein signatures of patients diagnosed with multiple system atrophy (MSA) or Parkinson’s disease.

“The major headline is there’s a different pattern between these two diseases. MSA looks pathologically very different than Parkinson’s disease in the skin, and it’s that cutaneous signature that lets us differentiate between the two disorders,” said Dr. Gibbons, noting that the Syn-One Test demonstrated >95% sensitivity and specificity in differentiating the disorders. Dr. Gibbons acknowledged that “…this is an early study, and we have plenty of work to do…” in terms of further validating the results.

Dr. Christopher Gibbons will present data from another study that examined the synuclein signatures of all four synucleinopathies at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Boston next week.

“I think it’s pretty obvious how this might be very clinically useful in terms of trying to get patients more accurate diagnoses and narrow the differential, both now and especially looking forward as we hope for disease-modifying treatments for these different diseases,” said Dr. Crowell.

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Read the paper at Neurology®.