News

Immune Cells Found to Cooperate to Fight Toxic Protein Clumps

Immune cells in the brain responsible for breaking down the toxic protein clumps, or aggregates, that lead to nerve cell death in Parkinson’s disease join together to form networks to share the burden, a study showed for the first time. These networked cells also share energy-producing mitochondria to help…

GCase Enzyme Activity Not Linked to Parkinson’s Risk, Severity

The activity of the enzyme glucocerebrosidase, called GCase, is not tied to the risk of developing Parkinson’s, nor linked with the disease’s severity, a new analysis from Israel indicates. “We did not find an association with risk for” the early signs or symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, the researchers wrote,…

Oral ANVS401 Improves Patients’ Motor Skills in Phase 2 Trial

Once-a-day treatment with oral ANVS401 was found to significantly improve motor skills among Parkinson’s disease patients in a Phase 2a clinical trial. Annovis Bio, the company developing ANVS401, is now planning to meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discuss possibly initiating larger Phase 3 studies. “We…

Vanqua Bio Will Use $85M Funding to Advance New Tech Platform

Vanqua Bio has raised $85 million in funding to accelerate the development of its small molecule technology platform for treating neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Led by Omega Funds, the Series B financing will advance the research of Dimitri Krainc, MD, PhD, of Northwestern University, an…

Financing Supports Planned US Trial of Lecigon for Advanced Parkinson’s

Intrance Medical Systems has raised $8 million to support a planned U.S. clinical trial of its fixed-dose combination of levodopa, carbidopa, and entacapone in advanced Parkinson’s disease patients. The combo therapy, originally developed by Lobsor Pharmaceuticals and sold under the name Lecigon in Nordic countries —  Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and their…