| CPC G01N 33/6893 (2013.01) [A61B 8/13 (2013.01); G01N 33/582 (2013.01); G01N 2800/2835 (2013.01); G01N 2800/2878 (2013.01)] | 43 Claims |
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1. A method for differentiating a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease (PD) from a diagnosis of Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) in a human subject, the method comprising:
(A) contacting a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or a brain homogenate (BH) sample (i) obtained from the human subject and (ii) comprising soluble, misfolded alpha-synuclein (αS) protein, with a pre-incubation mixture, the pre-incubation mixture comprising:
(1) a monomeric αS substrate;
(2) a buffer composition;
(3) sodium chloride (NaCl); and
(4) a fluorescent protein aggregation indicator,
to form an incubation mixture;
(B) incubating and agitating the incubation mixture to form an incubated mixture comprising misfolded αS aggregates;
(C) illuminating the incubated mixture with a wavelength of light that excites the fluorescent protein aggregation indicator, including:
(1) determining an initial average fluorescence (AFi) of the incubated mixture prior to the formation of the misfolded αS aggregates;
(2) determining a standard deviation (SDi) of the AFi; and
(3) determining a maximum fluorescence (Fmax) of the incubated mixture after the formation of the misfolded αS aggregates; and
(D) diagnosing the human subject as having PD or MSA, where:
(1) if the Fmax is from about 22.2×SDi+AFi to 250×SDi+AFi, the patient is diagnosed as having MSA; and
(2) if the Fmax is above 250×SDi+AFi, the patient is diagnosed as having PD.
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