Blood has been a disappointing target to-date because red cells contain large quantities of α-synuclein, obscuring any theoretical difference in levels between patients and controls, but some group differences have been demonstrated for DJ-1, urate, vitamin D and IGF-1 (for examples of individual studies see online supplementary material).48 Plasma apoliprotein A1 has been shown to differentiate patients from healthy controls and, interestingly, also to correlate with DaT SPECT deficit in hyposmic subjects with a family history of PD, recruited from the PARS study.49 The gene discussed is PARK7; the disease is Parkinson disease.