AAN 2026 | Striatal dopaminergic deficiency as a biomarker for personalized treatment in early PD
Katarina Rukavina, MD, PhD, Movement Disorders Hospital, Beelitz, Germany, discusses the potential utility of striatal dopaminergic deficiency as biomarkers to guide dopaminergic treatment decisions in early Parkinson’s disease (PD). She highlights findings from a pilot study suggesting that patterns of dopaminergic deficiency may help estimate individual treatment needs and support more personalized therapy approaches. This interview took place at the 78th American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL.
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Transcript
So in Parkinson’s disease, the symptom relief relies on dopaminergic substitution. And its dose needs to be precisely tailored to tackle each individual’s needs. At the moment, we don’t have any reliable biomarkers that could aid this dose estimation. And in our small sample size pilot study, we investigated whether the extent and the pattern of striatal dopaminergic deficiency may serve as a biomarker, helping clinicians to estimate the best dose of dopaminergic substitution for their patients with Parkinson’s disease...
So in Parkinson’s disease, the symptom relief relies on dopaminergic substitution. And its dose needs to be precisely tailored to tackle each individual’s needs. At the moment, we don’t have any reliable biomarkers that could aid this dose estimation. And in our small sample size pilot study, we investigated whether the extent and the pattern of striatal dopaminergic deficiency may serve as a biomarker, helping clinicians to estimate the best dose of dopaminergic substitution for their patients with Parkinson’s disease. And indeed, our small study has shown that in people with early Parkinson’s disease, the extent of this striatal dopaminergic deficiency is associated with their needs for dopaminergic substitution. But of course, these findings need to be confirmed in a larger controlled trial.
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