A new study has found that dogs can sniff out Parkinson’s disease by smelling skin swabs from people with the condition.
This exciting research was done by scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Manchester, in collaboration with the charity Medical Detection Dogs. The results were published on July 15 in The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a condition that affects the brain and causes problems with movement, like shaking or stiffness. It can be hard to diagnose in the early stages, so finding new ways to detect it sooner is very important.
In this study, two specially trained dogs—a Golden Retriever named Bumper and a Black Labrador named Peanut—were taught to recognize a unique smell found in the skin oil (called sebum) of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Over several weeks, the dogs learned to tell the difference between skin swabs from people with PD and those from people without the disease.
The researchers tested the dogs in a double-blind trial, which means that neither the handlers nor the researchers knew which samples were from people with PD. Only a computer had the correct answers.
The dogs showed very impressive results: one had a sensitivity of 80% (meaning they correctly identified 80% of PD samples) and a specificity of 98% (meaning they correctly ignored 98% of non-PD samples). Even samples from people with other health conditions did not confuse the dogs.
During the testing, each line of samples was shown to the dogs in different orders. If the dogs didn’t make a clear choice, the samples were shown again. This careful method helped make sure the results were accurate.
Right now, there is no simple or early test for Parkinson’s disease. Symptoms can start up to 20 years before a diagnosis is made. That’s why researchers are searching for biomarkers—signals in the body that can show someone has or might develop the disease.
Claire Guest, the CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at Medical Detection Dogs, said this study shows once again that dogs can accurately detect disease. She believes early diagnosis could help doctors start treatment sooner, which may slow the disease and reduce its symptoms.
Nicola Rooney, the lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Bristol, explained that finding new ways to detect PD early is very important. She said the dogs showed that there is a unique smell linked to Parkinson’s and that this could lead to a simple, non-invasive, and affordable way to help diagnose the disease.
Perdita Barran, a chemistry professor at the University of Manchester, added that this research is part of a larger program called Nose2Diagnose, inspired by a woman named Joy Milne who noticed a change in her husband’s smell before he was diagnosed with PD.
Barran said the findings add to the growing evidence that skin swabs could be used to detect the disease early, which would be a big step forward.
This study highlights the incredible power of dogs’ noses and how they may one day help doctors diagnose Parkinson’s disease more quickly and easily.
If you care about Parkinson’s disease, please read studies that Vitamin B may slow down cognitive decline, and Mediterranean diet could help lower risk of Parkinson’s.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies that blueberry supplements may prevent cognitive decline, and results showing Plant-based diets could protect cognitive health from air pollution.
The study findings can be found in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.
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