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PatientPoint, in collaboration with five U.S. patient advocacy organizations, has introduced a technology-driven point-of-care network for neurologists, neurology patients, and caregivers. With a focus on neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, the comprehensive network hopes to promote improved communication between patients and physicians. The new patient…

Mutations in the LRRK2 gene, which have been linked to familial Parkinson’s disease, impair the activity of the waste clearance system inside nervous brain cells, contributing to their progressive degeneration, a study finds. Using a compound called clioquinol, researchers could restore the activity of lysosomes — the…

Almost half of people in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease already have signs of neurodegeneration in a brain region called the caudate, which was previously thought to affect mostly those at advanced disease stages, a study reports. Early caudate involvement on both…

A two-year, global, observational study that will assess the contribution of genetic factors in the development of Parkinson’s disease has been launched by Centogene, in collaboration with the University of Lübeck. The new study (NCT03866603), which is called “Rostock International Parkinson’s Disease Study” or…

People who have appendectomies have more than three times the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to the findings of a U.S. large-scale study. The study, “Parkinson’s Disease Is More Prevalent In Patients With Appendectomies: A National Population-Based Study,” will be presented during Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2019,…

Neurologists treating patients with early-stage Parkinson’s disease should prescribe more often therapies that spare patients from starting levodopa too soon in order to delay onset of side effects associated with long-term use of the medicine, findings from a study conducted in Romania suggest. Researchers believe that even if a…

A new test can analyze cerebrospinal fluid samples and help measure how many toxic aggregates of alpha-synuclein can be found in the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease. The new assessment strategy was developed by Japanese researchers and was reported in a study, “Ultrasonication-based rapid amplification of…

A wearable device called Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) can continuously and objectively monitor motor symptoms in people with Parkinson’s disease, which can help clinicians select the most appropriate management therapy and assess treatment impact, a study finds. The study, “Objective Data in Parkinson’s Disease: A Description of Over 27,000…

In contrast to what was observed in mice, a hypertension medicine called Dynacirc (isradipine) failed to slow Parkinson’s disease progression in humans, according to Phase 3 clinical trial results. However, “the study did not fail,” according to Tanya Simuni, MD, who presented “A Phase 3 study of…

Low levels in saliva of a molecule called substance P may help predict the development of swallowing problems in people with Parkinson’s disease, a small pilot study in Germany found. Since this molecule works as communication signal between nerve cells in the body, this discovery suggests that impaired substance…