Trained dogs can smell Parkinson's disease before symptoms show up, study finds
Man’s best friend could provide more than just companionship.
In a new study from the University of Bristol, dogs were found to detect Parkinson’s disease well before symptoms appear.
Previous research has shown that people with Parkinson’s have increased amounts of sebum — an oily, waxy substance with a distinctively musky odor — on the skin.
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In the new study, two dogs that had been trained on more than 200 odor samples were presented with skin swabs from 130 people with Parkinson’s and 175 people without the disease, according to a press release.
The dogs — a golden retriever named Bumper and a black labrador named Peanut — were rewarded for positively identifying Parkinson’s samples and for ignoring negative ones.
The dogs showed sensitivity of up to 80% — which means they identified people who had the disease 80% of the time.
They achieved specificity of up to 98%, which is how good they were at ruling out people who did not have Parkinson’s.
The University of Bristol collaborated with Medical Detection Dogs and the University of Manchester on the study, which was published in The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease on July 15.
While there is no early screening available for Parkinson’s, some early warning signs can appear years or even decades before diagnosis, according to experts.
“Identifying diagnostic biomarkers of PD, particularly those that may predict development or help diagnose disease earlier, is the subject of much ongoing research,” said lead study author Nicola Rooney, associate professor at Bristol Veterinary School at the University of Bristol, in the release.
“The dogs in this study achieved high sensitivity and specificity and showed there is an olfactory signature distinct to patients with the disease,” she went on.
“Sensitivity levels of 70% and 80% are well above chance, and I believe that dogs could help us to develop a quick, non-invasive and cost-effective method to identify patients with Parkinson’s disease.”
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Claire Guest, chief scientific officer at Medical Detection Dogs in the U.K., reiterated that the study confirmed dogs can “very accurately” detect disease.
“Timely diagnosis is key, as subsequent treatment could slow down the progression of the disease and reduce the intensity of symptoms,” she said in the release.
Perdita Barran, professor of mass spectrometry at The University of Manchester, said the study “adds to the growing body of evidence showing that simple, non-invasive skin swabs can be used to diagnose Parkinson’s disease, offering a faster and more accessible method for early detection.”
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Looking ahead, the team plans to conduct longer-term studies to assess dogs’ capacity to detect Parkinson’s before diagnosis.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s UK provided funding for this study.