Israel develops innovative test for detection of Parkinson’s disease

Israeli researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have announced that they have developed an innovative test for early detection of Parkinson’s disease. 

Prof. Hermona Soreq of The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University, described the new test as ground-breaking in the battle against the disease. 

“This discovery is a big step forward in how we understand and detect Parkinson’s,” Soreq told The Times of Israel. The innovative test is designed to identify tRNA fragments that are associated with the disease even before the individual experiences any specific symptoms. 

Parkinson’s is a serious disease that leads to movement disorder of the nervous system. The disease is gradual and initially starts with a light tremor in a hand or foot. Symptoms tend to get worse and spread over time. While there is currently no cure for Parkinson’s, there are medicines that alleviate the health problems for the patients. 

Soreq further noted that the disease is currently diagnosed only after an individual has experienced serious damage in the brain “when there’s no use in developing therapeutics.” 

“We now have a simple, minimally invasive blood test, so if we catch the disease at a much earlier stage, then there is hope,” the lead scientist assessed. 

Soreq’s research team included PhD student Nimrod Madrer, Dr. Iddo Paldor from Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, and Dr. Eyal Soreq from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. The British-based Soreq Jr. is also the son of the lead scientist. Madrer, who was looking for new scientific challenges, decided to study tRNA fragments “and started from there.” His focus was driven by the fact that Parkinson’s disease remains an understudied area.

Madrer’s Parkinson’s study was abruptly put on hold on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 individuals in southern Israeli border communities. A reservist in the Israeli military’s elite Unit 8200 intelligence division, Madrer was called up alongside tens of thousands of IDF reservists.

He served for three months during the war. Yet despite the intensity of the conflict, Madrer used his limited free time to continue researching tRNA fragments in Parkinson’s. He recalls that his work eventually led him to put all “the sequencing on a Word file and look at them.”

“I was used to searching for patterns in things as part of my [military] training,” he revealed. “I started to see a pattern of tRNA fragments that were elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid in Parkinson’s patients,” Madrer continued. 

He explained how his military intelligence experience facilitated the study of the Parkinson’s disease.

“‘What do you think I’ve been doing in 8200 for almost six years? I’ve been screening data looking for repetitive patterns.’ So, we looked for the sequence and found that it is really repetitive, that it’s unique to Parkinson’s patients.”

Despite the scientific progress, Madrer concluded that much work remains in the research concerning Parkinson’s. 

“We still have a long way to go before we get there,” Madrer said. “But understanding the mechanism behind it will hopefully lead to a new potential treatment.”

Despite its tiny size, Israel has become an important player in the area of global medical research. Israel also has some of the world’s most advanced medical centers. 

In March, Newsweek ranked the Israeli Sheba Medical Center as the world’s 8th best hospital.