News

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…

SynAgile announced the completion of a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating DopaFuse, its noninvasive system for the continuous oral delivery of levodopa/carbidopa to people with Parkinson’s disease. Sixteen adults being treated with levodopa/carbidopa (LD/CD) in a tablet form were enrolled in the open-label study into the safety and tolerability…

Alpha-synuclein aggregation — the toxic clumping of proteins in nerve cells that is a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease — starts on the membranes of mitochondria, the so-called powerhouse of a cell, according to work in cell models. “Our study provides insights into what is happening in the earliest stages…

Amneal Pharmaceuticals is seeking U.S. approval of IPX-203, its extended-release carbidopa-levodopa (CD/LD) tablets, for Parkinson’s disease. The company submitted an Investigational New Drug Application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is based on top-line data from the Phase 3 RISE-PD clinical trial that showed IPX-203…

A dozen runners who live with Parkinson’s disease (PD) hope to heighten awareness of the neurodegenerative disorder and raise funds for research by taking on one of the nation’s most demanding relay road races — the Blue Ridge Relay — on Sept. 9-10. The 12 runners, who’ve dubbed themselves…