Parkinson’s disease (PD) is typically diagnosed after significant neurodegeneration has already occurred and early symptoms have been present. The goal is to validate electroretinography (ERG) for detecting early retinal dysfunction biomarkers non-invasively. PD is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor symptoms resulting from neuron loss. This study examined whether specific ERG features indicate early PD in M83 mice and early human patients. M83 homozygous transgenic mice (n = 10 males, 11 females) overexpressing A53T α-synuclein modelled early PD. Male and female mice were tested behaviourally and with ERG at 2 and 4 months.
Post-mortem retinal and brain tissues were collected. Participants aged 40 to 80 years with a ten-year idiopathic PD diagnosis were included in this study and had been on stable medication for at least one month. Participants were asked to abstain from PD medicines overnight to reduce their effects on results, and other medications not listed in the exclusion criteria were carefully recorded.
