News

Tracer to diagnose Parkinson’s via PET scans moving into clinical trial

A consortium dubbed Center Without Walls is planning to begin human testing of specific positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers, which its scientists identified, to detect toxic proteins like alpha-synuclein, helping diagnose and monitor Parkinson’s and similar diseases. Funded by a five-year, $30 million grant from the National Institutes of…

Syndication model seen accelerating progress in digital healthcare

A syndication model being explored in a Parkinson’s disease study may help accelerate digital healthcare by speeding the development of digital tools to track disease activity, according to a published paper. “The syndication model combines the speed of single sponsor studies with the advantage of having multi-member expertise and…

NIH consortium to explore gut-brain connection in Parkinson’s

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a consortium to support clinical studies designed to better understand the link between the gut and brain in Parkinson’s disease. The Gut-Brain Communication in Parkinson’s Disease Consortium is motivated by the fact that there are compelling data indicating that the gastrointestinal…

Researchers ID 3 genes linked to disease activity in Parkinson’s

Researchers in China have identified three genes — GPX2, CR1, and ZNF556 — with increased activity in people with Parkinson’s disease that could play a role in its development. If validated in future studies, these genes could ultimately serve as disease biomarkers to facilitate Parkinson’s diagnoses. “Our study identifies…

Potential diagnostic tool finds protein clumps in living cells

Researchers have developed a chemical tag that can detect and measure protein clumping, which is thought to contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, in living cells. The potential diagnostic tool, called TME, readily distinguished living white blood cells derived from Parkinson’s patients over those from healthy individuals, outperforming current…

Light therapy trial shows feasibility of home studies in Parkinson’s

Early data on recruitment and enrollment from Photopharmics’ Phase 3 clinical trial of its light-based, at-home therapy device for Parkinson’s disease — a novel treatment called Celeste — highlight both the interest in, and feasibility of, fully remote studies done in a patient’s home, according to the company. Such home-based, decentralized…

P2B001 may be ‘valuable’ first-line treatment for early Parkinson’s

P2B001, Pharma Two B’s investigational combination therapy of pramipexole and rasagiline, safely and effectively lessens symptoms in people with early-stage Parkinson’s disease, according to pooled data from Phase 2b and Phase 3 clinical trials. The combo treatment was also found to be as effective as titrated extended-release pramipexole…

Axon structure may be different shape than assumed, study finds

Axons, nerve cell projections that carry electrical signals from one cell to another, may look more like pearls on a string than the cylindrical tubes they are commonly believed to resemble, according to a study, which demonstrated that interfering with the formation of pearl-like structures impaired the transmission of electric…