Large-scale plasma proteomics uncovers preclinical molecular signatures of Parkinson's disease and overlap with other neurodegenerative disorders

  • Global Neurodegeneration Proteomics Consortium (GNPC)
  • , Jan Homann
  • , Alexander G Smith
  • , Sarah Morgan
  • , Elisabet A Frick
  • , Fangyu Liu
  • , Vivian Viallon
  • , Rashmi Maurya
  • , Roxanna Korologou-Linden
  • , Valerija Dobricic
  • , Olena Ohlei
  • , Laura Deecke
  • , Fatema Hajizadah
  • , Yujia Zhao
  • , Fanny Artaud
  • , Karl Smith-Byrne
  • , P Martijn Kolijn
  • , Jose Maria Huerta
  • , Nils Winter
  • , Marcela Guevara
  • Ana Jimenez-Zabala, María José Sánchez, Camino Trobajo-Sanmartín, Natalia Cabrera-Castro, Ana Vinagre, Dafina Petrova, Sabina Sieri, Tim J Key, Nick Wareham, Rudolph Kaaks, Ruth C Travis, Tim Hahn, Susan Baker, Sean M Kelly, Roel Vermeulen, Susan Peters, Giovanna Masala, Carlotta Sacerdote, Nancy Finkel, Alexis Elbaz, Moritz Hess, Verena Katzke, Lars Bertram, Vilmundur Gudnason, Oliver Robinson, Honglei Chen, Lefkos Middleton, Laura M Winchester, Ioanna Tzoulaki, Valborg Gudmundsdottir, Keenan A Walker

Research output: Working paperPreprintAcademic

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) remains incurable, with a long preclinical phase currently undetectable by existing methods. In the largest proteomic study in neurodegenerative diseases to date, we analyzed blood samples from ~74,000 individuals across discovery and validation cohorts. In the EPIC4PD discovery case-cohort, large-scale profiling of 7,285 proteins (SomaScan-7K) in 4,538 initially unaffected participants (574 incident cases) identified 17 proteins that predict PD up to 28 years before diagnosis. Additional proteins revealed sex-specific effects and time-dependent effect trajectories, capturing disease progression before symptom onset. Replication in three prospective cohorts (n=64,856; 1,034 incident cases) confirmed at least 12 key pre-diagnostic biomarkers with strong evidence, including TPPP2, HPGDS, ALPL, MFAP5, OGFR, ACAD8, TCL1A, GPC4, GSTA3, LCN2, KRAS, and GJA1. Preclinical biomarkers showed 86% concordant effect directions in independent prevalent PD cases (n=2,592; p=1.6×10 -19). Furthermore, in the longitudinal Tracking PD cohort (n=794), HPGDS and MFAP5 also predicted cognitive decline. Notably, several of the identified PD biomarkers overlapped with those for incident Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, indicating shared molecular signatures. A machine learning-derived protein score improved PD risk prediction in external validation. This extensive proteomics effort identified novel, actionable biomarkers opening new avenues for early PD risk stratification and precision medicine.

Original languageEnglish
PublishermedRxiv
Number of pages42
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jul 2025

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