Sarah
Knapton, Science Editor
9 July 2017 • 1:34pm
Dogs could soon be used to sniff
out Parkinson’s disease years before symptoms start to show.
Scientists are trying to discover
which odour molecules are linked to the disease so that dogs can be trained
to spot the illness.
Researchers at Manchester
University first began to believe Parkinson’s might have a discernible odour
when a woman in Perth, Scotland, with a highly sensitive sense of smell
claimed she detected a change in the odour of her husband six years before he
was diagnosed with the condition.
Joy Milne claimed
her husband’s smell changed subtly years before any difficulty with movement
started to emerge.
When researchers conducted tests
with Mrs Milne they found she was able to identify people living with
Parkinson’s from people without the condition by smelling skin swabs taken from
both groups.
In one case, Mrs Milne identified
an individual who had Parkinson’s but at the time had not been diagnosed with
the condition, because they had no symptoms.
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