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Of the roughly 1 million U.S. residents with Parkinson’s disease, some 110,000 are veterans. To improve this population’s health, well-being, and quality of life, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has formed a partnership with the Parkinson’s Foundation. The intent of the collaboration is to…

The Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), a study sponsored by The Michael J. Fox Foundation, is expanding to recruit more participants, the Foundation announced. Currently, the study (NCT04477785) is recruiting new participants — both with and without Parkinson’s disease — at Banner Research Institute in…

Mood problems have a greater impact on quality of life among Parkinson’s patients who have had the neurodegenerative disorder for a long time, compared with those who are earlier in their disease course, new findings show. The results were published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, in the study, “Mood…

Networks of mitochondrial interactions in nerve cells may be used as a biomarker in diagnosing Parkinson’s disease, a recent study has shown. The study, “Mitochondria interaction networks show altered topological patterns in Parkinson’s disease,” was published in the journal Nature Systems Biology and Applications. Mitochondria are small organelles…

People with Parkinson’s disease who have higher levels of the protein kininogen-1 in the fluid surrounding their brains and spinal cord are more likely to experience early cognitive impairment, a new study suggests. The study, “Cerebrospinal Fluid Levels of Kininogen‐1 Indicate Early Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease,”…

The California Parkinson’s Disease Registry (CPDR) will continue through June 2021, after gaining support from the state’s governor and $380,000 in extension funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), the foundation announced. Due to the economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated research…

Nanoparticles as transport agents have a potential to more effectively deliver medications to the brain, opening neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease to new treatments, a study suggested. But work is needed to further refine these particles, assuring their safety as well as their efficacy, its researchers wrote. The study,…

Scientists have designed a so-called “organ-on-a-chip” device that can grow dopaminergic neurons — the brain cells most affected in people with Parkinson’s disease — in a 3D environment where they are more like real neurons in the brain, a study shows.

Tremor in Parkinson’s patients affects how well levodopa treatment, via dopamine production, affects learning skills in these people — supporting evidence of a link between tremor and cognition, a study found. Specifically, its researchers showed that levodopa-treated patients without tremor had better reinforced learning skills (learning through rewards,…

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) in Denmark have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to monitor and track the dynamics of protein movement and function, which can advance the understanding behind neurodegenerative disorders such as…