News

FDA OKs Phase 2 Trial of Oral NE3107 in Easing Inflammation

The launch of a Phase 2 trial into the safety and early efficacy of oral NE3107 in treating Parkinson’s disease patients with motor fluctuations while on levodopa was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), BioVie, the therapy’s developer, announced. BioVie plans to initiate patient enrollment for the trial,…

Grants Support Researching Role of Non-neuronal Cell Types

Scientists at the Duke University School of Medicine have received two grants totaling $18 million to investigate how different cells in the brain and in the gut may foster the onset and progression of Parkinson’s disease. The grants from the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative will fund two…

Study Assesses How Music Therapy May Improve Fine Motor Skills

A clinical study is assessing whether a specific type of rehabilitation therapy — called neurologic music therapy — may help people with Parkinson’s disease recover fine motor skills, such as those required for writing, self-care, and fine object manipulation. The trial (NCT03049033) is underway at the University of…

Altoida Partners to Test Precision Device in Detecting Parkinson’s

Altoida announced a three-year collaboration with a Greek university to investigate whether the company’s precision neurology medical device can aid in the early detection of Parkinson’s disease. The agreement between Altoida and scientists at the Bioinformatics and Human Electrophysiology Laboratory (BiHELab), part of Ionian University in Corfu,…

Wearable Sensors in Fabric May Help Monitor Disease Progression

Scientists have created wearable, flexible sensors — which can be integrated into fabrics, and detect touch pressure as well as measure body movements — that may be used to gauge motor disease progression in people with Parkinson’s, a study reported. Placing the sensors in the soles of patients’ shoes…

Web-Based Speech Tool May Help ID Parkinson’s in Real World

A new tool that analyzes speech using real-world, web-based recordings — participants are recorded via a webcam and a microphone connected to a personal computer or laptop — identified Parkinson’s disease patients with 74% accuracy, a study demonstrated. Moreover, this speech tool — called Parkinson’s Analysis with Remote Kinetic-tasks,…

Studies Into How Alpha-synuclein Affects Key Immune Cell Needed

More research is needed to understand how alpha-synuclein — a protein whose accumulation is characteristic of Parkinson’s disease — affects cells other than nerve cells, particularly microglia, the resident immune cell of the brain. A pair of researchers at the Van Andel Institute in Michigan raised this argument after…

Low Levels of Vitamin B6 and B12 Linked to Patients’ Nerve Damage

Neuropathy, or nerve damage, was linked to abnormally low levels of the vitamins B6 and B12 in three people with Parkinson’s disease, according to a case report. “All patients were consecutively identified within one year at a single institution,” the researchers wrote, which suggests that neuropathy associated with low levels…