Brain biomarkers may predict Parkinson’s disease changes before deterioration becomes visible in conventional clinical assessments, a study suggests.
Measuring changes in brain function over time remains difficult, as clinical evaluations mainly capture signs that can be observed during appointments.
Changes in how patients feel and function in daily life can provide further evidence of disease progression. This patient-centred approach is becoming increasingly important to the US Food and Drug Administration.
The standard Parkinson’s disease assessment used in the trial records patients’ experiences of daily living, but meaningful changes can be difficult to measure reliably over time.
NeuraLight said its biomarkers predicted changes in how patients experienced the burden of the disease.
The company also claimed they were the first biomarkers to show greater sensitivity than the standard assessment in detecting these changes.
The PALOMA trial was a multicentre, longitudinal study involving 250 adults at clinical sites in the US and Europe.
Longitudinal studies follow participants over time to identify changes in their health or behaviour.
The trial used NeuraLight’s biomarkers to measure changes in brain function as participants were monitored.
The results indicated that the biomarkers could predict deterioration before a decline became visible through conventional clinical assessments, according to the company.
NeuraLight said the findings linked subtle changes in brain function with declines that affected patients’ everyday lives.
The technology could help researchers assess whether treatments are working, monitor their effects over time and support efforts to preserve brain health.
Edmund Ben-Ami, co-founder and chief executive of NeuraLight, said: “Neurology has needed a way to quantify how the brain changes over time, and to connect that change to what matters most: how a patient feels and functions day to day.
“These results provide evidence that this can now be done, and more sensitively than the gold-standard scale allows.
“This is another exciting milestone in our mission to make brain function measurable, for both the field and the patients it serves.”
NeuraLight is a health technology company that uses neuroscience research, AI and proprietary data to measure aspects of brain function.
The company said its technology is used in several commercial partnerships.
