Approaches to Early Parkinson's Disease Subtyping

Parkinson's disease (PD) unfolds with pathological processes and neurodegeneration well before the emergence of noticeable motor symptoms, providing a window for early identification. The extended prodromal phase allows the use of risk stratification measures and prodromal markers to pinpoint individuals likely to develop PD. Importantly, a growing body of evidence emphasizes the heterogeneity within prodromal and clinically diagnosed PD. The disease likely comprises distinct subtypes exhibiting diverse clinical manifestations, pathophysiological mechanisms, and patterns of α-synuclein progression in the central and peripheral nervous systems. There is a pressing need to refine the definition and early identification of these prodromal subtypes. This requires a comprehensive strategy that integrates genetic, pathological, imaging, and multi-omics markers, alongside careful observation of subtle motor and non-motor symptoms. Such multi-dimensional classification of early PD subtypes will improve our understanding of underlying disease pathophysiology, improve predictions of clinical endpoints, progression trajectory and medication response, contribute to drug discovery and personalized medicine by identifying subtype-specific disease mechanisms, and facilitate drug trials by reducing confounding effects of heterogeneity. Here we explore different subtyping methodologies in prodromal and clinical PD, focusing on clinical, imaging, genetic and molecular subtyping approaches. We also emphasize the need for refined, theoretical a priori disease models. These will be prerequisite to understanding the biological underpinnings of biological subtypes, which have been defined by large scale data-driven approaches and multi-omics fingerprints.