To this end, we selected 15 protein markers–Aβ40, Aβ42, α-syn, p-Tau, t-Tau, OPN, HMGB1, NFL, IL-6, DJ-1, UCHL1, FLT3LG, MMP2, S100β and ApoA1 –for measurement in the CSF of confirmatory cohort I (comprising 80 early clinical PD patients and 80 controls) and subsequently evaluated their robustness to distinguish early clinical PD patients from controls. The gene discussed is FLT3LG; the disease is Parkinson disease.