• Chronos‑PD shows that biological changes associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) can emerge up to 12 years before clinical diagnosis



     
  • Uncovered reproducible early molecular signals and distinct molecular patterns in PD, supporting future efforts in patient stratification and precision medicine research



     
  • Chronos is part of a broad Grifols program to find early disease biomarkers leveraging more than 100 million proprietary plasma samples connected to real-world data on thousands of conditions



     
  • Grifols presents data in 13 posters and oral presentations at AD/PD™ 2026 conference in Copenhagen (Denmark)

     

BARCELONA, Spain, March 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grifols ((MCE:GRF, MCE:GRF.P, NASDAQ:GRFS), a global healthcare company and leading producer of plasma-derived medicines, today shared proof-of-concept data from its Chronos-PD program, demonstrating that biological changes in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) occur more than a decade before clinical diagnosis, with potential future implications for early detection and intervention.

The data has been published as part of a publication in medRxiv and will be shared through 13 posters and presentations at the AD/PD™ 2026 conference taking place March 17-21, 2026 in Copenhagen, Denmark. See for presentation details in this link.

Chronos-PD is a pioneering program driven by Grifols' subsidiary Alkahest designed to identify early signs of PD years before clinical diagnosis. Leveraging plasma samples collected over 15 years, the program combines AI, advanced proteomics and real-world data to identify biomarkers that could help predict disease risk and guide future treatments.

The proof-of-concept study, funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF), analyzed over 2,600 longitudinal plasma samples from rigorously matched PD cases and controls, and measured over 25,000 protein types using four complementary proteomics platforms, making it the most deeply profiled longitudinal proteomic study in PD to date. The pilot study has analyzed longitudinal plasma samples covering a period of up to 12 years before the diagnosis of PD and 9 years after. This has enabled researchers to track how distinct plasma proteins evolve over time in people with PD, which could help establish an early-warning system for the emergence of the disease.

Researchers have confirmed PD biomarkers previously discovered and identified reproducible early PD biomarkers, validated across up to 5 independent cohorts. The study also uncovered novel, early biomarkers of PD, including a major modulation of the CXCL12–cell adhesion molecules–integrin axis, a signaling network that governs leukocyte trafficking and blood-brain barrier integrity and is implicated in PD-associated neuroinflammation.