News

Probiotic supplements were found to ease multiple measures of constipation in people with Parkinson’s disease in a small clinical trial. According to researchers, the use of such supplements also “significantly” improved quality of life for patients with constipation problems. “In this study, multi-strain probiotics were used to treat [Parkinson’s]…

To help expand patient access to treatments and other services, the Parkinson’s Foundation is inviting U.S. medical centers that provide outstanding Parkinson’s disease (PD) clinical care and resources to apply for membership in its Global Care Network. The network comprises Parkinson’s Foundation Centers of Excellence as well as…

Patient dosing has begun in a Phase 2a clinical trial testing oral CST-2032 in combination with CST-107 as a potential way to ease the symptoms of mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia due to Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease, the company developing these therapies, CuraSen Therapeutics, announced. The trial (…

The American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) will fund a host of Parkinson’s disease research projects for the coming year, including one that will examine the molecular underpinnings of anxiety and another that proposes a treatment for freezing of gait, for a total funding package of $2.35 million, a 25%…

The use of antipsychotic medications is substantially more common among people with Parkinson’s disease than in the general population, according to a new study based on national data in Finland. Results show that the increase in antipsychotic use among Parkinson’s patients is evident several years before the disease is…

Rates of blood vessel dysfunction are not significantly different in people with Parkinson’s disease compared to the general population, a small study reports. The findings indicate that, among people with Parkinson’s, smoking and the use of treatments called dopamine agonists are associated with poorer blood vessel function. The…

The hormone irisin prevents the buildup of toxic alpha-synuclein protein, leading to the preservation of nerve cells and easing motor symptoms in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease, a study has found. Experiments showed the hormone had an ability to facilitate the breakdown of toxic alpha-synuclein through lysosomes, the…

A protein “traffic jam” inside nerve cells promotes the buildup of shorter and toxic tau — a protein that forms toxic aggregates in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders — according to a new study using fruit flies and mammalian cell lines. The accumulation of toxic tau resulted in fewer connections…

AC Immune will use a new $500,000 grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to advance the development of its ACI-12589 positron emission tomography (PET) scan tracer for the detection of alpha-synuclein protein — whose damaging clumps are a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. The…

Using a newly created probe and non-invasive PET scans, researchers were able to visualize sites of alpha-synuclein protein clumps — associated with nerve damage in Parkinson’s disease — in the brains of living patients, scientists reported. This method may help in diagnosing conditions related to alpha-synuclein clumping, referred to…