帕金森氏症患者所经历的身体机能下降最终导致残疾和生活质量较低。但取决于不同个体，上述病症可以是迅速发生，也可能会缓慢地发生。

    近日，UCLA科学家和同事，第一次确定与帕金森氏更快进展形式相关的血液生化信号。新发现的生物标志物可以帮助医生在早期就能预测疾病，判断疾病如何迅速进展。

    研究人员表示，他们希望血液生物标志物将有助于早期发现疾病，并导致更有效的治疗疾病。这项研究发现刊登在期刊PLOSONE上。帕金森氏病是第二个最常见的神经退行性疾病，困扰超过1%的60岁以上的人。帕金森氏病除了影响行走，说话和其他运动功能，疾病也会导致认知能力下降和抑郁症。加州大学洛杉矶分校BeateRitz教授说：帕金森的进展过程在个体之间有很大变化。有些病人在诊断后短短几年内会坐上轮椅，痴呆或患上严重的抑郁症，有的病人上述症状出现时间会大大延后。

    在这项研究中，研究人员利用250名帕金森氏症早期阶段患者的血液样本，对这些患者追访研究5到10年。结果是，其中四名被确定为具有缓慢进展形式的帕金森氏症，40名患快速进展形式疾病。两组患者的血液样本，与一组来自同一地区的20名健康个体的样本进行比较。研究人员利用高分辨率质谱仪，以确定血液中的代谢物或化学指纹。他们发现了帕金森氏病快速进展型的潜在生物标志物。

    该生物标志物称为N8-乙酰精胺，与缓慢进展者和健康对照组进行比较，N8-乙酰精胺在快速进展形式中是显著升高的。Ritz教授说：这在了解帕金森氏症如何演变的道路上向前迈出重要一步。我们的希望是，这种生物标志物可以在早期发现疾病，进而更有效的治疗疾病。

    Serum Metabolomics of Slow vs. Rapid Motor Progression Parkinson's Disease: a Pilot Study

    James R. Roede, et al.Progression of Parkinson's disease （PD） is highly variable, indicating that differences between slow and rapid progression forms could provide valuable ***rmation for improved early detection and management. Unfortunately, this represents a complex problem due to the heterogeneous nature of humans in regards to demographic characteristics, genetics, diet, environmental exposures and health behaviors. In this pilot study, we employed high resolution mass spectrometry-based metabolic profiling to investigate the metabolic signatures of slow versus rapidly progressing PD present in human serum. Archival serum samples from PD patients obtained within 3 years of disease onset were **yzed via dual chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry, with data extraction by xMS**yzer and used to predict rapid or slow motor progression of these patients during follow-up. Statistical **yses, such as false discovery rate **ysis and partial least squares discriminant **ysis, yielded a list of statistically significant metabolic features and further investigation revealed potential biomarkers. In particular, N8-acetyl spermidine was found to be significantly elevated in the rapid progressors compared to both control subjects and slow progressors. Our exploratory data indicate that a fast motor progression disease phenotype can be distinguished early in disease using high resolution mass spectrometry-based metabolic profiling and that altered polyamine metabolism may be a predictive marker of rapidly progressing PD.