Catarina Silva, MSc,  —

Researchers at China’s Nanjing Medical University have found a link between Parkinson’s patients’ depression and deterioration of white matter in their brains, particularly on the left side. Their work, “Impaired long contact white matter fibers integrity is related to depression in Parkinson’s disease,” was published in the journal…

Voyager Therapeutics announced it’s recruiting participants for the company’s new Phase 1 clinical trial to test a new approach for their gene therapy VY-AADC01 in Parkinson’s disease patients. The company has also released updates to its ongoing Phase 1b trial testing VY-AADC01 and highlighted its preclinical programs focusing on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,…

Two Cleveland Clinic researchers are recipients of the first grants awarded by the National Institute of Health’s BRAIN Initiative in neuroethics, for studies looking ethical issues in brain surgeries intended to treat diseases, with specific attention on Parkinson’s. “We are thankful the BRAIN Initiative sees the importance of exploring ethical considerations…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to Insightec to start a pivotal study of its Exablate Neuro technology. The ultrasound therapy aims to treat advanced Parkinson’s disease patients with involuntary muscle movements and motor fluctuations who don’t respond to medication. The principal investigator is Dr. Howard Eisenberg,…

Voyager Therapeutics’ new clinical data on VY-AADC01 as a maintenance therapy for advanced Parkinson’s disease shows   improvement in patients’ motor function after just one dose, and with meaningfully lower doses of oral levodopa. The company presented ongoing Phase 1b trial (NCT01973543) results at the Oct. 17-20 Congress of the European Society…

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a new way to look for genes that protect against Parkinson’s disease. They did so by developing a modified version of the CRISPR genome-editing system. Their work was published in the journal Molecular Cell with the title, “…

Genetic and molecular markers of quicker motor decline in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients were identified in a computer modeling study of disease progression. Among already described demographic factors, like older age or male sex, the researchers specifically identified a novel and Parkinson’s-specific genetic interaction between the LINGO2 gene and a…

Scientists in Singapore and Korea have discovered a brain mechanism that can trigger Parkinson’s disease symptoms, such as abnormal muscle stiffness, tremors and loss of voluntary movement. The study, which took five years to complete, is titled “Inhibitory Basal Ganglia Inputs Induce Excitatory Motor Signals in the Thalamus.” It was published…

A Phase 1/2 clinical trial evaluating ITI-214 in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) has begun enrolling patients, Intra-Cellular Therapies announced. ITI-214 is a potent and selective inhibitor of the phosphodiesterase 1 (PDE1) enzyme, which is involved in the degradation of both cAMP and cGMP (cyclic nucleotides). These are within-cell messengers for…

Weight loss is common in Parkinson’s disease and can affect quality of life. A study has identified factors that can predict weight loss in patients who are in the early stages of Parkinson’s. They include being a woman, being older, having posture problems, having low cognitive scores, and using levodopa as a dopamine…