It is estimated that 6.3 million people have Parkinson’s disease worldwide affecting all races and cultures. Researchers have shed a great deal of light on the possible causes and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease but have yet to find or reveal a possible cure.

About 90,000 Nigerians are affected with the disease. Consultant Neurologist, Professor Njideka Okubadejo disclosed so at a recent meeting convened by the Funmi Fashina Foundation (FFF) with the objective of training medical practitioners and care givers on neurological disorders. Professor Okubadejo further disclosed that 67 out of every 100,000 Nigerians above 40 years old live with the disease.

What exactly is Parkinson’s Disease

To the lay man Parkinson’s disease may just be one of those diseases that causes uncontrolled movement of body parts. According to Medical News Today in its publication titled “Parkinson’s Disease: causes, diagnosis and treatment,” Parkinson‘s disease, also known as Parkinson disease, PD, paralysis and shaking palsy, is a gradually progressive, degenerative neurologic disorder which typically impairs the patient‘s motor skills, speech, writing, as well as some other functions.

Sufferers often have a fixed, inexpressive face, tremor at rest, slowing of voluntary movements (bradykinesia), an unusual posture, and muscle weakness. In extreme cases there is a loss of physical movement (akinesia).

It is a chronic and progressive movement disorder, meaning that symptoms continue and worsen over time

While about 5% of individuals with Parkinson‘s disease are under the age of 40 years, the majority are over 50. When signs and symptoms develop in an individual aged between 21 and 40 years, it is known as Young-onset Parkinson‘s disease. Approximately 1 in every 20 patients diagnosed with PD is under 40 years of age. When signs and symptoms appear in people under 18 years of age, it is known as Juvenile Parkinson‘s disease. It affects both sexes; males slightly more than females

Current realities of the disease

The cause of Parkinson’s disease is unknown, but several factors appear to play a role. This includes genes. Certain gene variations appear to increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease but with a relatively small risk of Parkinson’s disease for each of these genetic markers.

Whilst the causes may be unknown, a major symptom is movement disorder which is tremor or shaking. According to Professor Okubadejo some tremors can be so irritating where the person cannot write or even sign his signature and would have to thumb print.

Ray of hope

There is however a ray of hope as continuous research and early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease give sufferers the chance of a longer, healthier life.   One of the results of the research is the new in-built wearable device that could make data collection and analysis from Pakinson’s disease sufferers easy.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and Intel Corporation recently announced collaboration aimed at improving research and treatment for Parkinson’s disease — a neurodegenerative brain disease second only to Alzheimer’s in worldwide prevalence.

The technology uses Big Data analytics and data from wearable computing and other sources to offer improved monitoring and treatment of Parkinson’s disease.  It combines hardware and software technologies that could provide researchers with means to accurately measure progression of disease symptoms in real time.

Tracking an invisible enemy

For nearly two decades, researchers have been refining advanced genomics and proteomics techniques to create increasingly sophisticated cellular profiles of Parkinson’s disease pathology. Advances in data collection and analysis now provide the opportunity to expand the value of this wealth of molecular data by correlating it with objective clinical characterization of the disease for use in the development of the drug.

Research findings have also shown that the potential to collect and analyze data from thousands of individuals on measurable features of Parkinson’s, such as slowness of movement, tremor and sleep quality, could enable researchers to assemble a better picture of the clinical progression of Parkinson’s and track its relationship to molecular changes.

Wearables can unobtrusively gather and transmit objective, experiential data in real time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With this approach, researchers could go from looking at a very small number of data points and burdensome pencil-and-paper patient diaries collected sporadically to analyzing hundreds of readings per second from thousands of patients and attaining a critical mass of data to detect patterns and make new discoveries.

MJFF and Intel initiated a study earlier this year to evaluate the usability and accuracy of wearable devices for tracking agreed physiological features from participants and using a big data analytics platform to collect and analyze the data. The participants (16 Parkinson’s patients and nine control volunteers) wore the devices during two clinic visits and at home continuously over four days.

Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Data Center Group, Diane Bryant said that, “The variability in Parkinson’s symptoms create unique challenges in monitoring progression of the disease,” adding that “emerging technologies can not only create a new paradigm for measurement of Parkinson’s, but as more data is made available to the medical community, it may also point to currently unidentified features of the disease that could lead to new areas of research.”

Mental Health and Services Consultant, Dr. Femi Olugbile, who spoke on the relevance of data in Parkinson’s disease management and research, urged Nigerian clinicians to make the best of the new innovation in which he said lies the possibility of local remedies, noting also that Parkinson’s disease has a significant presence among the Nigerian population, especially the elderly.

“Clinicians and researchers on the cutting edge are looking at the possibilities represented by Gene Therapy, Stem Cell Transplantation, and the use of Neuroprotective Agents (principally glutamate antagonists and antioxidants) as the future treatments for this disabling neurodegenerative condition,” Olugbile said, while expatiating on opportunities that the new technology could deploy.

Also speaking on the innovation, a researcher and scientist, Dr. Dimeji Aliyu, a scientist with a research firm stated that the innovation is a welcome development and it would help to assist with early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.

It is hoped that in the near future, the platform could store other types of data such as patient, genome and clinical trial data. It is also hoped that as well as enable other advanced techniques such as machine learning and graph analytics to deliver more accurate predictive models that researchers could use to detect change in symptoms disease.