Scientists from China have found a possible way to detect signs of Parkinson's disease through patients' hair. This is reported by iScience.
Specialists studied hair samples from 60 individuals with Parkinson's disease and compared them with the indicators of healthy subjects of the same age. Patients with the diagnosis showed reduced levels of iron and copper, while the concentrations of manganese and arsenic were found to be higher. The most stable marker turned out to be the decrease in iron content. Researchers note that hair better reflects long-term changes in the body than blood or saliva.
Additional experiments on rodents confirmed the link between iron deficiency in hair and intestinal dysfunction. Animals with symptoms resembling Parkinson's disease exhibited a weakened intestinal barrier and changes in the activity of genes related to iron absorption. This supports the hypothesis of a connection between the gut and the brain in neurodegenerative diseases.
The authors emphasize that the work is preliminary and requires validation on larger samples. If the results are confirmed, hair analysis in the future may become one of the methods for early detection of Parkinson's disease.
