Mutations in the enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GCase) prevent it from entering the lysosome — a cell’s recycling center — where it clears away unwanted materials such as alpha-synuclein toxic clumps that cause Parkinson’s disease and ultimately kill nerve cells, a recent study found. These encouraging findings may help to validate efforts to…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved 4D Pharma’s request to launch a Phase 1 clinical trial in the U.S. evaluating the safety and tolerability of MRx0005 and MRx0029, its experimental live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) for Parkinson’s disease. LBPs, a new class of therapies, are defined by the…
Activating a particular subpopulation of nerve cells in a specific region of the brain — caudal glutamatergic neurons in the pedunculopontine nucleus — can normalize movements in mouse models of Parkinson’s disease, a study reports. Its results suggest that finding ways to specifically stimulate these neurons could ease motor…
People with Parkinson’s disease and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder — marked by acting out dreams, sometimes violently — showed no significant differences in their levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, an inflammatory protein, and orexin, a protective protein, relative to patients without this sleep disorder or people…
A particular region of the brain responsible for sensing and processing speech and speech-like sounds is overly active in people with Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study. These findings may help provide a biological explanation for why Parkinson’s patients tend to speak more quietly than a given situation…
Reports of anxiety and other mental health issues are fewer in people with Parkinson’s who make greater use of a coping mechanism known as self-compassion, a U.K. study based on patients’ views found. These results further suggest that self-compassion can help to negate the negative affects of “internalized stigma,” or fear…
People who have had a heart attack are at lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease later in life relative to the general population, according to a nationwide study in Denmark. “These findings indicate that the risk of Parkinson’s disease is at least not increased following a heart attack and…
IMAC Holdings has completed dosing the second group of patients in its Phase 1 clinical trial testing umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell therapy for the treatment of bradykinesia due to Parkinson’s disease. About a year ago, a first group of five patients received a low dose of the…
Researchers at Iowa State University are evaluating whether four months of group singing sessions can improve breathing and swallowing in people with Parkinson’s disease. Changes in brain activity and stress markers also will be analyzed. The study, supported by a three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, is…
Parkinson’s patients have a subpopulation of astrocytes — brain cells that support neuronal function and health — that produce a vitamin D-activating enzyme called CYP27B1 and are involved in clearing the toxic alpha-synuclein clumps that form in the disease. The small study compared deceased Parkinson’s…
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