News

Lower-than-usual levels of the protein SIRT1 are evident in the blood of people with Parkinson’s disease, and correlate with greater disease severity and cognitive impairment, a study reported. A blood test of SIRT1 levels, for this reason, may serve as a biomarker…

Engineers with Michigan State University (MSU) are developing diamond-based electrodes that might detect early warning signs of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s in a living brain. MSU researchers Wen Li and Erin Purcell have received $3.4 million in funding from the National…

Supernus Pharmaceuticals has submitted a new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking approval of SPN-830, its apomorphine infusion pump, the company said. If approved, the pump will be used for the continuous treatment of on-off episodes in adults with Parkinson’s…

Sunovion‘s Kynmobi (apomorphine hydrochloride), a sublingual film treatment for “off” episodes in people with Parkinson’s disease, has a manageable safety profile and maintains efficacy over up to nearly a year of use, interim data from an ongoing Phase 3 trial show. Findings were presented at MDS…

Mutations in the PARK7 gene, known to cause early onset Parkinson’s disease, result in low levels of a protein called DJ-1 that is essential for nerve cell health, a study revealed. In fixing a protein processing malfunction in cells derived from members of…

Vercise Genus, a fourth-generation system for deep brain stimulation (DBS) made by Boston Scientific, has received CE marking and is now commercially available in Europe. A treatment approach for Parkinson’s disease, DBS involves surgically implanting a neurostimulator to deliver electrical impulses to targeted regions of…

Disturbed sleep, like that due to sleep apnea, significantly associates with poorer cognition in Parkinson’s disease patients, particularly in the domains of attention, executive function, and memory, a study reported. The study, “Sleep Disturbances and Sleep Disordered Breathing Impair Cognitive Performance in Parkinson’s Disease,” was published…

Hidrox, a compound extracted from olives, can significantly ease Parkinson’s motor symptoms, reduce alpha synuclein buildup, and slow neurodegeneration in animal models of the disease, a recent study has found. Though Hidrox is known mostly for its antioxidant effects, its benefits in Parkinson’s went beyond a decline…

D&D Pharmatech has launched a new company called Valted Seq, aimed at discovering pathways and biomarkers relevant to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s. To this end, the company claims in a press release to have created the world’s largest repository of single-cell sequencing data. This data comes…

Astrocytes, the star-shaped cells that provide physical support for neurons in the brain, also appear to contribute to the development and progression of Parkinson’s disease, a recent study suggests. Compared with healthy astrocytes, those containing Parkinson’s mutations showed multiple hallmarks of the disease, including the presence of…