Steve Bryson, PhD,  science writer—

Note: This story was updated March 21, 2024, to correct that NeuroDerm is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. ND0612, a liquid formation of levodopa/carbidopa given without interruption via an under-the-skin pump, continues to outperform standard oral levodopa/carbidopa at controlling motor symptoms in people with advanced…

Four months of daily Nuplazid (pimavanserin), an approved oral therapy for psychosis associated with Parkinson’s disease, was also found to significantly improve cognitive abilities, daily living activities, and health-related quality of life for patients in a Phase 4 study. “These findings suggest that treatment with [Nuplazid] can result…

Olatec Therapeutics will launch a Phase 2 clinical trial in the U.K. to investigate the potential of oral dapansutrile to slow or stop Parkinson’s disease progression by reducing inflammation in the brain. The study, made possible by a grant from the U.K.-based Cure Parkinson’s, will begin in…

The selective loss of dopamine-producing nerve cells in one side of the brain of mice, to mimic Parkinson’s disease, impacted the length of movement sequences on the opposite side of the body, but not the same side, a study shows. The study’s researchers discovered two distinct populations of these…

Mutations in the PRKN gene, a common cause of early-onset Parkinson’s disease, were tied directly to low activity of the gene, a study reports. Because gene activity was measured by standard methods using cells in the bloodstream, the findings may support developing an “easily accessible screening test for PRKN mutations,”…

The easing of dyskinesia — the involuntary movements associated with advanced Parkinson’s disease — seen with use of the approved medication Duopa (levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel) was tied to reduced pain and improved health-related quality of life among patients following treatment. That’s according to a new analysis of clinical…

In a new approach to drug discovery, seven molecules, or “hits,” that may treat familial Parkinson’s disease were identified in the first open science competition run by the Canadian nonprofit Conscience. Launched with support from the global public-private partnership Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) and a grant from…

Shingles, an infectious disease marked by a painful skin rash with blisters, wasn’t associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, according to a study of more than 1 million U.S. veterans. “We showed no evidence of an increased risk of incident [Parkinson’s disease] after [shingles] in a large,…

Reduced activity of the RIT2 gene in a subtype of nerve cells — regardless of  whether they produce dopamine — may be implicated in the development of Parkinson’s disease, according to a study that measured gene activity in more than 300,000 individual brain cells. The protein encoded by RIT2…

The RAZ Memory Cell Phone will allow people with impaired speech, including those with Parkinson’s disease, to speak using their own voice during video phone calls and be fully understood. The speech recognition technology was developed by Voiceitt, a voice AI and machine learning company, in partnership…