News

Twenty weeks of resistance training significantly decreases depression symptoms and improves quality of life in older people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), a study has found. The training, consisting of exercises involving the arms and legs and simulating daily activity movements, also improved patients’ flexibility, endurance, and walking performance.

The coupling of electrical signals in the brain — as it responds to levodopa and is associated with motor improvements — may provide ways to better assess the clinical state of people with Parkinson’s disease, and improve the efficacy of deep brain stimulation (DBS), according to new…

Contrary to current knowledge, alpha-synuclein protein — whose toxic form is responsible for the formation of Lewy bodies — may play a crucial role in preventing cell death by repairing damaged DNA, a study has found. This critical function of the protein may also be lost in Parkinson’s patients, its…

Interleukin-17A (IL-17A) — a molecule that is involved in immune and inflammatory responses — accelerates brain inflammation and degeneration in animal models of Parkinson’s disease, a study has found. The research, “IL-17A exacerbates neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration by activating microglia in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease,” was published in…

Inflammatory molecules called cytokines may be a peripheral biomarker of Parkinson’s progression, especially of its characteristic changes in motor abilities, according to new research using machine learning. The study, “Parkinson’s progression prediction using machine learning and serum cytokines,” appeared in the journal npj Parkinson’s Disease.

Mental illness in people with Parkinson’s disease, more frequently found in female and older patients, appears to associate with more severe disease, a new study reports. Titled, “Comorbid Depression and Psychosis in Parkinson’s Disease: A Report of 62,783 Hospitalizations in the United States,” the study was published…

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) — an arm of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) — is recommending that Inbrija, by Acorda Therapeutics, be approved to treat off periods in Parkinson’s patients on a carbidopa/levodopa regimen. The European Commission will review CHMP’s positive…

A molecule called GM1 ganglioside may protect the brain against the molecular changes associated with Parkinson’s disease progression, and may one day directly treat its neurodegenerative processes, according to an early study. The study, “GM1 Ganglioside Modifies α-Synuclein Toxicity and is Neuroprotective in a Rat α-Synuclein Model of…

A wearable motion-tracking device called Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) objectively and effectively assesses Parkinson’s-related motor fluctuations, researchers report. The study, “The role of Personal KinetiGraphTM fluctuator score in quantifying the progression of motor fluctuations in Parkinson’s disease,” was published in Functional Neurology. The PKG system, developed…

Mindfulness yoga seems to be better than conventional exercise at alleviating depression and anxiety in people with Parkinson’s disease, according to a recent study. The study with that finding, which was published in the journal JAMA Neurology, is titled, “Effects of Mindfulness Yoga vs Stretching and…