News

The loss of dopamine causes neurons in the striatum — a brain region involved in voluntary movement control — to change their activity, explaining some of Parkinson’s hallmark symptoms. Instead of firing in sequence, some of these neurons are overactive and fire simultaneously, making the mice have a repetitive rotation…

Parkinson’s disease patients living in rural areas in Iowa show improved respiratory function with group therapeutic singing delivered via telemedicine, according to a pilot study. The study, “The Feasibility of Group Therapeutic Singing Telehealth for Persons with Parkinson’s Disease in Rural Iowa,” was published in the journal…

The metabolism of certain types of fats, namely palmitic acid and stearic acid commonly found in animal and vegetable fats and oils, may be altered in Parkinson’s disease, according to a study in rats. The study, “Palmitate and Stearate are Increased in the Plasma in a 6-OHDA Model of Parkinson’s…

Wives who take care of husbands with Parkinson’s disease have greater impairments in their stability while standing than housewives or more active women of the same age, a study shows. The research, “Postural stability in Parkinson’s disease patients’ wives and in elderly women leading different lifestyles,”…

AbbVie and Voyager Therapeutics have extended their collaboration to co-develop and commercialize antibodies that target the toxic forms of alpha-synuclein to treat Parkinson’s disease and other synucleinopathies. The collaboration will combine AbbVie’s expertise in monoclonal antibodies with Voyager’s gene therapy platform to deliver antibodies across the blood-brain barrier…

Some 10 percent of Parkinson’s patients carry a mutation in the GBA gene, making it the most common genetic risk for this disease. With a goal of learning more about these mutations, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and the Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with…

A tool called Vercise Cartesia Directional Lead is intended to provide more precise deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment for people with Parkinson’s disease. Researchers at UHealth — University of Miami Health System recently became the first in the Eastern U.S. and the second in the country to…

A palm-worn device can quantify joint stiffness in Parkinson’s disease patients by tracking changes in rigidity following treatment with deep brain stimulation, and may be of use in measuring fluctuations in motor symptoms, scientists who created the tool report. Their study, “A Palm-Worn Device to Quantify Rigidity in…

Although exercise is beneficial for patients at all stages of Parkinson’s disease, a regular routine should be in place before movement issues become pronounced, an expert who led a presentation hosted by The Parkinson Voice Project advises. The theme of the free Feb. 9 talk by Michael Braitsch,…

Discoveries into molecular mechanisms, risk factors — especially genetic — and advances in potential and repurposed therapies for Parkinson’s disease over the last 20 years are reason to believe that major breakthroughs await the next two decades, a review article by two researchers states. The review article, “Therapies to…