Saliva-based test for Parkinson’s disease

Research grant has been awarded to validate a saliva-based diagnostic test for Parkinson’s disease.

Oasis Diagnostics^® (WA, USA) has been awarded a research grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (NY, USA) to validate the development of a saliva-based test for Parkinson’s disease. There is a current lack of diagnostic biomarkers, meaning Parkinson’s disease is difficult to diagnose in a noninvasive and low-cost manner – the current options are either cebrospinal biomarkers or imaging techniques.

The study – in collaboration with Charles Adler’s group at the Mayo Clinic (AZ, USA) – will involve research into biomarkers in saliva that are under an exclusive license held by OASIS from Danish researchers. It has been demonstrated that 50 salivary biomarkers contribute to Parkinson’s disease, with as few as three biomarkers leading to accurate diagnosis using the OASIS VerOFy^® platform.

The OASIS VerOFy platform enables rapid, point-of-care testing using saliva samples. Initial work to be carried out will verify that the platform is able to detect specific concentrations of each of the three biomarkers. This will ensure that a high degree of accuracy can be achieved for Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.

Source: Oasis Diagnostics^® announces grant award from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease.