Elevated α-Synuclein Aggregate Levels in the Urine of Patients with Isolated REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and Parkinson's Disease

New research is shedding light on a potential breakthrough for diagnosing Parkinson's disease (PD). A study using surface-based fluorescence intensity distribution analysis (sFIDA) found that α-synuclein aggregates, commonly associated with PD, can be detected in urine samples.

This method showed promising results, with 83% sensitivity and 65% specificity for PD, and 89% sensitivity and 62% specificity for isolated REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (iRBD), a precursor to PD.

These findings highlight sFIDA’s potential as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for synucleinopathies. Currently, cerebrospinal fluid is needed to measure abnormal synuclein. If sFIDA can be developed further, it is promising for biomarker confirmation of synucleinopathy noninvasively.