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Collecting finger tapping, voice, and walking data on a smartphone to be digitally processed by deep machine learning tools can accurately distinguish between people with and without Parkinson’s disease, a study of more than 7,000 people reported. This approach, known integrative digital biomarkers, may help to diagnose the disease…

In the culmination of a woman’s 10-year campaign, the government of Ontario, Canada, has agreed to recognize Parkinson’s disease (PD) as an occupational disorder linked to the use of McIntyre powder, an aluminum-based inhalant, in mining and other industries. The decision by Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) was…

Loss of a protein called DJ-1, which is linked to the development of early-onset Parkinson’s disease, may also mean a longer-lasting immune response, according to a new study. Researchers observed that immunoaging — a decline in immune function with aging — was slowed in a man with Parkinson’s who…

Mice in a Parkinson’s disease model treated at higher doses with the anti-anxiety medication buspirone had lesser evidence of nerve cell degeneration in the brain and more normalized behaviors than untreated mice, a pair of researchers in Australia reported. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the ability…

Winners of the 2022 edition of the $3 million Cure One, Cure Many Award for the early diagnosis of Lewy body dementia (LBD) have been announced by its promoter, the American Brain Foundation. They are the Mayo Clinic’s Owen A. Ross, PhD, Pamela J. McLean, PhD, and…

Older age at disease onset among people with Parkinson’s is associated with a more rapid increase in the severity of motor symptoms, as well as a faster decline in health-related quality of life, a new study found. According to investigators, understanding the factors underlying the development of symptoms “is…

A collaborative effort between researchers in Spain and Norway is helping to enrich an understanding of the regulatory mechanisms behind the production of dopamine, the brain chemical messenger progressively lost in people with Parkinson’s disease. Specifically, the team determined the structure of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) — the rate-limiting enzyme…

Among Parkinson’s patients, those carrying GBA and APOE gene mutations have a significantly faster cognitive decline and a higher risk of progression to dementia, a study in more than 1,000 patients across Northern Europe reported. Notably, the dementia risk was even higher when mutations in both genes were present. No significant associations…

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sharp drop in admissions to nursing homes and emergency rooms among adults with Parkinson’s disease and those with dementia, according to a new study from Canada. The study also suggests that virtual visits with doctors have become much more common…

Parkinson’s UK and Domainex are teaming up to develop small molecules aimed at lessening chronic brain inflammation and slowing the progression of Parkinson’s disease. “We are thrilled to have been selected by Parkinson’s UK to work on this promising project which has the potential to improve the…