Researchers have developed a system that accurately and inexpensively screens for Parkinson’s disease from the odours in a person’s ear wax.
The Chinese scientists reported findings of their study in the American Chemical Society’s Analytical Chemistry report.
They said most treatments for Parkinson’s disease (PD) only slowed disease progression. Early intervention for the neurological disease which worsens over time was critical to optimise care, but that required early diagnosis. Current tests such as clinical rating scales and neural imaging could be subjective and costly, they said.
“Previous research has shown that changes in sebum, an oily substance secreted by the skin, could help identify people with PD,” they wrote.
“Specifically, sebum from people with PD may have a characteristic smell because volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released by sebum are altered by disease progression – including neurodegeneration, systemic inflammation and oxidative stress.”
When sebum on the skin was exposed to environmental factors such as air pollution and humidity, its composition could be altered, making it an unreliable testing medium, they said.
But the skin inside the ear canal is kept away from the elements. The researchers wanted to focus their screening efforts on ear wax, which mostly consists of sebum and is easily sampled.
Potential biomarkers for PD
To identify potential VOCs related to PD in ear wax, they swabbed the ear canals of 209 people (108 of whom were diagnosed with PD).
They analysed the collected secretions using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques. Four of the VOCs the researchers found in ear wax from people with PD were significantly different from the ear wax from people without the disease.
They concluded these four VOCs, including ethylbenzene, 4-ethyltoluene, pentanal, and 2-pentadecyl-1,3-dioxolane, were potential biomarkers for PD.
They then trained an artificial intelligence olfactory (AIO) system with the ear wax VOC data.
The resulting AIO-based screening model categorised with 94% accuracy ear wax samples from people with and without PD.
They said the AIO system could be used as a first-line screening tool for early PD detection and could pave the way for early medical intervention, thereby improving patient care.
“This method is a small-scale single-centre experiment in China,” said one of the researchers, Mr Hao Dong from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Research Center for Frontier Fundamental Studies.
“The next step is to conduct further research at different stages of the disease, in multiple research centres and among multiple ethnic groups, in order to determine whether this method has greater practical application value.”
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