The Rit2 protein clears toxic forms of the alpha-synuclein protein from nerve cells, where it manifests as a hallmark symptom of Parkinson’s disease, a study reveals. Targeting Rit2 could represent an effective strategy to combat nerve cell loss in familial and sporadic forms of the disease, its researchers noted.
A highly sensitive blood test accurately identified people with synucleinopathies, disorders caused by the abnormal aggregation of the protein alpha-synuclein, such as Parkinson’s disease. The test, called immunoprecipitation-based real-time quaking-induced conversion (IP/RT-QuIC), detected early-formed alpha-synuclein fibrils — or seeds — that eventually grew into disease-causing aggregates. Microscopic analysis detected…
In people with Parkinson’s disease, sleep disturbances and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) were associated with the impairment of the autonomic nervous system that controls involuntary bodily functions, a study shows. Depression and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD), or dream-enacting behavior, also contributed to problems sleeping at night…
Noninvasive low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) temporarily opened the blood-brain barrier to allow molecules to enter the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients, a study reports. In nonhuman primates, LIFU safely enhanced the delivery of a gene therapy model using a harmless, modified virus directly to the striatum, a region affected…
The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) has awarded a $150,000 grant to a biopharmaceutical company seeking to develop a positron emission tomography (PET) tracer for NLRP3, a therapeutic target tied to brain inflammation in Parkinson’s disease. With the funding, Ventus Therapeutics hopes to identify and develop a…
Greater proportions of immune regulatory B-cells were associated with better motor performance in people with early Parkinson’s disease, a study revealed. Regulatory B-cell subsets may be protective by limiting pro-inflammatory responses that contribute to disease progression, data showed. Meanwhile, elevated levels of antibodies produced by regular B-cells against the…
Parkinson’s disease patients carrying severe variants in the GBA gene, a known genetic risk factor, experience faster motor and cognitive decline than those without such mutations, a Chinese study shows. Faster motor function decline was primarily driven by worsening bradykinesia (slow movements) and axial impairment (walking, posture, and balance…
People with Parkinson’s disease have higher than normal levels of a nerve cell-damaging red/yellow pigment called pheomelanin in their substantia nigra, the area of the brain that’s mainly affected by the neurodegenerative disease, a study showed. By contrast, levels of eumelanin — an antioxidant black/brown pigment responsible for the…
Researchers at Michigan Technological University are developing a “smart” deep brain stimulation (DBS) system to treat Parkinson’s disease that’s automatically activated only when needed, making it more effective and energy-efficient. The researchers are using neuromorphic computing — an approach inspired by the structure and function of the human…
Inflammatory biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of Parkinson’s disease patients with and without mutations in the GBA gene are at similar levels, and across all patients, higher levels of these markers associate with poorer cognition over time, a study found. TNF-alpha, a pro-inflammatory molecule, showed particular potential as a predictive…
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