Michael J. Fox's foundation has played a pivotal role in funding research into Parkinson's disease which could be a game-changer for future patients.
The actor, 61, first began exhibiting the symptoms of Parkinson's in 1991 and was diagnosed shortly afterward but did not go public with his diagnosis until 1998.
The first symptom he noticed was that he woke up one morning to find his pinky finger twitching uncontrollably, describing it as "auto-animated".
He continued acting and chose to hide his condition before eventually speaking out publicly seven years later, and has continued to raise awareness for the condition ever since.
He established the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000 to help advance every promising research path to curing Parkinson's disease.
The foundation has since become the largest non-profit funder of Parkinson's disease research in the world, with more than $1 billion of research projects to date.
Since 2010, the actor has led a $100 million research project with a large-scale clinical study to discover the biological markers of Parkinson's disease with the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative.
The research funded by Fox's foundation has resulted in the clearest evidence yet that the presence of alpha-synuclein, a specific misfolded protein, can be used to determine if people have Parkinson’s.
The findings will not only be used to improve diagnostics but may also help speed up the development of treatments for Parkinson's disease.
The study involved 1,123 people and has cost hundreds of millions of dollars but could be a game-changer in making the diagnostic process less painful and invasive.
At present, alpha-synuclein can only be detected with a spinal tap, which is an uncomfortable procedure for the patient, however, there are hopes that it could soon be detected with a simple blood test, skin biopsy, or even a swab of the nose.
The findings were published in The Lancet Neurology and the test was described as "a game-changer in Parkinson’s disease diagnostics, research, and treatment trials."
While this is just the beginning, the discovery will be used to develop drug trials which can take up to a decade - however, the foundation is hoping that it can push it through in three to five years.
Fox told Stat News that he feels that he is helping to fight Parkinson's first-hand, comparing it to his memories of playing hockey on a youth team: "The guy next to me has a full-on mustache and I’m this little slug. But I’m a tough son of a b***h.
"I’ve always been a tough son of a b***h. You can beat me up, but I’ll get one punch in and it will hurt. And I think I got one punch in on Parkinson’s."
While he initially turned to alcohol to help him cope with his diagnosis, Fox eventually realized that he could use his health battle for the greater good by helping to fund research into the disease.
He set up the foundation in 2000 and used his platform to attract top scientists to carry out research as well as big donors to fund it.
The Back To The Future star also communicated with the participants of his study and their families in order to encourage them to take part in the vital research in the first place.
The current study, the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative, began in 2008 and followed patients who were diagnosed in the earlier stages of Parkinson's to see how the disease progressed.
Previous studies had been done on animal systems rather than humans, which had been holding back any advancements in this research, as human studies were much more difficult and expensive.
The results of Fox's foundation's study showed that using synuclein as a test in early Parkinson’s detected the disease 87% of the time, as well as showed the absence of Parkinson's in those that didn't have it 96% of the time, too.
Ken Marek, president of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders in New Haven, Conneticut, and principal investigator of the PPMI study, told the publication: "This changes things in many ways in a positive direction. It enables us to be more clear for individuals who might have or who have what we now think of as Parkinson’s disease."
Further research will be done to see if the progression of the disease can be predicted using these markers as well as to develop treatments.
Fox added: "Now this is the newest chapter, which is, we got something done, something that is fundamentally going to change the world. I don’t say that lightly. I don’t say it with any credit. It’s the way it worked out."
