Current understanding of Parkinson’s disease does not reflect patients from diverse socioeconomic or ethnic backgrounds, and they remain poorly represented in research, according to a position paper from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF). “The current picture of PD [Parkinson’s disease] has been assembled from…
Immune cells in the brain responsible for breaking down the toxic protein clumps, or aggregates, that lead to nerve cell death in Parkinson’s disease join together to form networks to share the burden, a study showed for the first time. These networked cells also share energy-producing mitochondria to help…
Amprion has announced the commercial rollout of SYNTap Biomarker Test, a laboratory test to accurately detect alpha-synuclein aggregates, a hallmark of various brain diseases, including Parkinson’s disease. Alpha-synuclein, a protein, can misfold and accumulate (aggregate) in toxic clumps called Lewy bodies, leading to the death of nerve…
Vanqua Bio has raised $85 million in funding to accelerate the development of its small molecule technology platform for treating neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Led by Omega Funds, the Series B financing will advance the research of Dimitri Krainc, MD, PhD, of Northwestern University, an…
Studies on twins and families have suggested that susceptibility to Parkinson’s disease has a substantial genetic component. Now, an analysis of gene activity in different brain tissues has identified gene candidates that may be directly involved in causing the neurodegenerative disorder. The study, “A transcriptome-wide association study…
The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) has released a new suite of free educational resources that focuses on so-called “off” periods when Parkinson’s disease symptoms reappear or worsen as medications wear off. These new resources, available at michaeljfox.org/off, offer patients and their families tips for managing “off” time,…
The antioxidant urate failed to slow Parkinson’s disease progression in newly diagnosed patients over two years, according to data from a Phase 3 clinical trial. “While our study did not rule out a protective effect of urate in Parkinson’s, it clearly showed that increasing urate did not slow disease…
People with Parkinson’s disease who use medications for epilepsy reported a poorer quality of life on questionnaires than did those who do not, a study reported. Quality of life (QoL) was also lower in those who used a higher number of medicines to treat the disease’s non-motor symptoms. “Physicians should…
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, almost doubles the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease in people of Han Chinese descent living in Singapore, a case-controlled study found. In contrast, a comparison of similar studies conducted in the U.S. and the U.K. found that hypertension was associated with a reduced risk…
Blood levels of various fat molecules — known as the lipid profile — in people with familial Parkinson’s disease caused by mutations in the GBA gene differ from those seen in people with sporadic Parkinson’s and healthy individuals, a study reported. These findings suggested that problems with lipid metabolism…
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