Tears - more to them than meets the eye: why tears are a good source of biomarkers in Parkinson's disease.

Tears - more to them than meets the eye: why tears are a good source of biomarkers in Parkinson's disease. Biomark Med. 2020 Feb 17;: Authors: Edman MC, Janga SR, Kakan SS, Okamoto CT, Freire D, Feigenbaum D, Lew M, Hamm-Alvarez SF Abstract Tears are a known source of biomarkers for both ocular and systemic diseases with particular advantages; specifically, the noninvasiveness of sample collection and a unique and increasingly better-defined protein composition. Here, we discuss our rationale for use of tears for discovery of biomarkers for Parkinson's disease (PD). These reasons include literature supporting changes in tear flow and composition in PD, and the interconnections between the ocular surface system and neurons affected in PD. We highlight recent data on the identification of tear biomarkers including oligomeric α-synuclein, associated with neuronal degeneration in PD, in tears of PD patients and discuss possible sources for its release into tears. Challenges and next steps for advancing such biomarkers to clinical usage are highlighted. PMID: 32064896 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Future Medicine: Biomarkers in Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Biomark Med Source Type: research