Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals Inc. (fka RCPIQ)

[Buddhahead]

Skin Test for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Shows Early Promise in U.S. News-Health, Feb. 24, 2015

Excerpts:
"A small, early study hints that a skin test may someday be able to help diagnose people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Researchers found that skin biopsies can reveal elevated levels of abnormal proteins associated with the two disorders.

The study is being released ahead of its presentation in April at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) in Washington, D.C.

As it stands now, a definite diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in a living person has not been possible, so the illness is often "unrecognized until after the disease has progressed," Dr. Ildefonso Rodriguez-Leyva, of the Central Hospital at the University of San Luis Potosi in Mexico, explained in an academy news release.

"We hypothesized that since skin has the same origin as brain tissue while in the embryo, that they might also show the same abnormal proteins," he said. "This new test offers a potential biomarker that may allow doctors to identify and diagnose these diseases earlier on."

"According to the AAN, about 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease and 1 million have Parkinson's disease."

Article at:
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015/02/24/skin-test-for-alzheimers-parkinsons-shows-early-promise