Margarida Maia, PhD,  science writer—

Toxic substances that enter via the nose or gut give rise to toxic protein clumps that eventually cause Parkinson’s disease, researchers propose. “In both the brain-first and body-first scenarios the [disease mechanism] arises in structures in the body closely connected to the outside world,” Ray Dorsey, MD, a professor…

Parkinson’s disease may change the way basic emotions — such as anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise — are felt in the body, a study suggests, opening up new perspectives into the disease’s nonmotor symptoms and how they’re managed. “The results of our study raise many interesting questions…

There appears to be no link between a unique pattern of the gut microbiome — the genetic material carried by all of the microorganisms, such as bacteria, living in the gut — and mild cognitive impairment in people with Parkinson’s disease, a study found. The study, “Gut microbiome…

People with Parkinson’s disease who experience digestive issues or probable rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder may be as much as twice as likely to develop symptoms of psychosis, a study found. Understanding what predicts early-onset psychosis in Parkinson’s can help doctors identify at-risk patients sooner, enabling them…

Having irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a gastrointestinal disorder that may be linked to how the brain and gut communicate with each other, does not seem to increase a person’s risk for Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study of more than 400,000 people. In an analysis, the researchers “did…

SPARX3, an ongoing clinical trial investigating the effects of moderate– and high-intensity aerobic exercise — specifically, treadmill walking four times per week — in Parkinson’s disease, is still recruiting patients at 23 sites in the U.S. and one in Canada, according to the…

The first patients received doses of an oral thin-film formulation of montelukast in a clinical trial testing the treatment’s potential for Parkinson’s disease. The placebo-controlled MONTPARK trial will test how well a high dose of Montelukast VersaFilm, a proprietary formulation being developed by IntelGenx, can slow the progression…

The presence of salt or a molecular crowd may make it more likely for the alpha-synuclein protein, which forms toxic clumps in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease, to aggregate, or build up, into droplets, according to computer simulations run by researchers in India. Understanding how alpha-synuclein behaves,…

People with Parkinson’s disease are nearly twice as likely to experience delirium during hospital stays as hospitalized older adults without the neurodegenerative disease, according to a study from Newcastle University. Data showed that delirium, which often goes undocumented in Parkinson’s, was reported in as many as two-thirds of…

NeuroOne has begun a limited U.S. commercial launch of its OneRF Ablation System, a device that can be used for mapping and targeting brain areas with abnormal neuronal activity to treat a range of neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. The company said it’s rolling out the…