Photonics probing of structural alterations in Parkinson’s disease in human brain cells/tissues

      

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of the midbrain and loss of both motor and non-motor features. Although there is no cure for PD, early detection can provide treatment for slowing down the neurodegenerative process; however, early detection is challenging clinically. As the structural alteration happened within the neural cells, it implies in the nanoscale intracellular alteration in the brain cells/tissues. We apply dual optical/photonics techniques for the characterization of structural changes in brain cells/tissues in progressive PD. In particular, we use mesoscopic optical physics-based finer-focused partial wave spectroscopy (PWS) technique to quantify the nano to submicron scales structural alterations in the brain tissues. Consequently, we use another mesoscopic physics-based method, the inverse participation ratio technique (IPR), to quantify the spatial structural disorder of DNA mass density fluctuations via confocal imaging. Initial results show a change in structural disorder as well as in the nuclear DNA spatial mass density in the brains of PD patients. The application of the techniques for early detection and treatment will be discussed.