About AMP PD Overview

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurological disease that is marked by tremors in the resting muscles, rigidity, slowness of movement, impaired balance and a shuffling gait. In addition, many people with PD develop non-motor symptoms such as behavioral changes and cognitive impairment. 

Because the worldwide population is living longer, PD represents a significant and increasing threat to public health. In the United States alone it has been estimated that up to 1 million people may have PD. That number is expected to increase in the coming years, and the current annual cost of treatment for PD in the United States has been estimated at $14.4 billion. 

Though it is a complex neurodegenerative disorder, the two primary hallmarks of PD are the progressive loss of dopamine-containing neurons in a specific area of the brain called the substantia nigra and the buildup within neurons of a protein, α-synuclein, into clusters called Lewy bodies.

Need for New Therapies

The cause of PD has been linked to several genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors; however, the exact causes of neuronal death and Lewy body formation are not known. 

Despite large investments in research and development, no disease-modifying drugs have been approved for PD. It has become clear that a breakthrough in this area will require strong and transformative public-private partnerships that can produce bold discoveries.

AMP PD aims to identify and validate diagnostic, prognostic, and progression biomarkers. This will improve clinical trial design and contribute to the identification of new pathways for therapeutic developments.

The goals of AMP PD are: 

• To standardize data collection for biomarkers in multiple cohorts
• To conduct standardized assays on thousands of existing biosamples, incorporating existing clinical, imaging, genetic data
• To pursue additional large-scale biomarker discovery with transcriptomics, epigenomics, whole genome sequencing, metabolomics, and proteomics
• To dissect new targets and disease subtypes; track and predict disease progression; identify biomarkers of Parkinson’s progression and assess their potential as targets for therapies