Long before Les Milne began exhibiting the telltale signs of Parkinson’s disease, his wife Joy—a so-called “super smeller” capable of detecting scents too subtle for most people to perceive—sensed that something was afoot. But while Joy first noticed a “sort of woody, musky odor” emanating from her husband some 12 years before his diagnosis, it wasn’t until the couple later attended a Parkinson’s support group that she realized the distinctive smell was linked with the degenerative disorder.
Now, Ian Sample reports for the Guardian, researchers from the University of Manchester have capitalized on Milne’s unusual abilities to identify four compounds responsible for producing the Parkinson’s disease-signaling scent. Their findings, published in ACS Central Science, could one day help doctors detect the disease before symptoms arise, opening up a pathway for preventative treatments that aim to delay the onset of debilitating motor loss function.
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At the same time, Sample explains for the Guardian, researchers will test more than 1,000 Parkinson’s sufferers’ sebum, as well as that of hundreds of healthy volunteers, to further confirm the link between specific compounds and the musky odor Milne initially smelled.
Read full, original post: How a Woman Who Can Smell Parkinson’s Disease Helped Scientists Create a New Early Diagnosis Method
