Alice Melão,  —

Defects in mitochondria, the cell’s microscopic powerhouses, might actually protect Parkinson’s disease patients, a Norwegian study suggests. The findings show that, contrary to all current theories, deficiencies in complex I — a key component of mitochondria — exist randomly throughout the brains of Parkinson’s patients, not only in affected regions. In…

Patients with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, or RBD, have a form of inflammation in the brain that puts them at risk of developing Parkinson’s disease or dementia, according to researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark. The study, “Assessment of neuroinflammation in patients with idiopathic rapid-eye-movement…

Using low-frequency electrical pulses to stimulate a deep brain region can improve the cognitive function of people with Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases, a study suggests. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already approved high-frequency deep brain stimulation as a way to treat Parkinson’s. A team at the University of Iowa’s…

Women with Parkinson’s disease are less likely to have caregiver support, and are more frequent users of formal, paid caregiver services than male patients. Researchers at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who conducted the study, argue that this might be because women tend to live longer…

Researchers at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, have uncovered a molecular mechanism that links Parkinson’s disease and environmental exposure. Their study, “S-Nitrosylation of PINK1 Attenuates PINK1/Parkin-Dependent Mitophagy in hiPSC-Based Parkinson’s Disease Models,” appeared in the journal Cell Reports. It shows that too many reactive nitrogen molecules…

Horizon Discovery, in a collaboration with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), has developed two new genetic rat models that may help scientists better understand alpha-synuclein‘s role in brain function and in the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Alpha-synuclein is the main molecular component of…

Anavex 2-73, an investigational therapy being evaluated in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease, was found to restore the function of damaged nerve cells in mouse models of Parkinson’s disease. Based on the favorable safety profile seen in the clinic, the findings support the hypothesis that Anavex 2-73 might be a promising approach for…

Researchers at Roche’s innovation center in Basel, Switzerland, have identified four small molecule therapy candidates that target the neurotensin receptor, a protein believed to play a role in the development of Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders. They used a double screening technique to narrow their list from thousands of possibilities…

Acadia Pharmaceuticals is starting a new Phase 3 clinical trial testing the efficacy of pimavanserin to treat the hallucinations and delusions associated with dementia-related psychosis in a broad array of patients with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and many other dementias. Pimavanserin, under the brand name Nuplazid, was approved by the U.S. Food and…

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis developed a new computational method that can help predict if a patient will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease based solely on medical records. This new predictive algorithm was revealed in the report “A predictive model to identify Parkinson…