News

Continuously monitoring the gait of Parkinson’s disease patients in their homes using a wireless device is feasible and may provide more sensitive measurements of disease progression and treatment response, according to a new study. The device, which monitors fluctuations in motor function by tracking gait speed, may improve disease…

Clumps of alpha-synuclein protein, which build to toxic levels in the brain and spinal cord of Parkinson’s disease patients, spread via a cellular waste-ejection process, according to a study in mice. These clumps, which failed to be broken down in lysosomes, the cells’ recycling centers, are released by nerve…

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) announced it will expand the number and reach of Parkinson’s disease clinician-researchers around the world, in partnership with the Edmond J. Safra Foundation. The Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders aims to fund medical centers to…

Gain Therapeutics’ GT-02287, an oral candidate therapy for Parkinson’s disease, led to dose-dependent improvements in the health of nerve cells and fine motor skills in mice. These findings, presented recently as a poster at the International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders 2022 in Madrid, add to…

Researchers have developed a test that may help to more accurately diagnose Parkinson’s disease and monitor its progression. It combines two already-used laboratory techniques to measure clumps of alpha-synuclein in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Alpha-synuclein is the protein that progressively builds to toxic levels in the brain and…

A new study suggests that infections requiring specialty hospital care are associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease later in life. An increased risk also was observed for Alzheimer’s disease, but not for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). “Hospital-treated infections, especially in early- and mid-life, were associated with…

Acting out a word or phrase may help people keep memory of it — a phenomenon called the enactment effect — and this also may hold true for those with poor motor control due to Parkinson’s disease, according to a review study. “Our meta-analysis found that even Parkinson’s disease…

Neuron23 and QIAGEN have joined forces to develop a companion test to predict the response of patients to Neuron23’s experimental treatment for Parkinson’s disease, called NEU-723. “QIAGEN’s blood-based test will help to identify patients with Parkinson’s disease who are likely to respond to Neuron23’s LRRK2 inhibitor,” Nancy Stagliano,…

New trial data suggest that low-dose ketamine — which does not induce anesthesia — may be a potential treatment for levodopa-induced dyskinesia, or involuntary movements, in Parkinson’s disease. “Ketamine was safe [and] well-tolerated with 100% of patients treated with ketamine demonstrating reduction in dyskinesias,” PharmaTher Holdings, the Canadian-based…

Biotech company Innervace — a spinoff from the University of Pennsylvania — has raised up to $40 million to support the development of its novel regenerative cell therapy platform for Parkinson’s disease. Innervace’s cell therapy platform specifically aims to create implantable tissue to replace the lost neuronal circuits…