News

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Boston Scientific’s Vercise Deep Brain Stimulation system to help Parkinson’s patients control their movement. Europe and Australia have already approved the system — the first to target specific nerve cells in the brain. It does this by stimulating electrodes that surgeons…

Researchers at China’s Nanjing Medical University have found a link between Parkinson’s patients’ depression and deterioration of white matter in their brains, particularly on the left side. Their work, “Impaired long contact white matter fibers integrity is related to depression in Parkinson’s disease,” was published in the journal…

Patients with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, or RBD, have a form of inflammation in the brain that puts them at risk of developing Parkinson’s disease or dementia, according to researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark. The study, “Assessment of neuroinflammation in patients with idiopathic rapid-eye-movement…

People with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) have impaired emotional recognition and expression compared to healthy people, a new study shows. The study, titled “Altered emotional recognition and expression in patients with Parkinson’s disease,” was published in the journal Neuropsychiatric Disease and…

Using low-frequency electrical pulses to stimulate a deep brain region can improve the cognitive function of people with Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases, a study suggests. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already approved high-frequency deep brain stimulation as a way to treat Parkinson’s. A team at the University of Iowa’s…

Weight loss in Parkinson’s disease patients increases the risks for dementia and dependency care, and reduces patients’ life expectancy, according to a new study. These findings suggest that monitoring weight and timely dietary interventions to counteract weight loss may significantly improve the outcome of Parkinson’s disease patients. The study, “Early…

Women with Parkinson’s disease are less likely to have caregiver support, and are more frequent users of formal, paid caregiver services than male patients. Researchers at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who conducted the study, argue that this might be because women tend to live longer…

Researchers at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, have uncovered a molecular mechanism that links Parkinson’s disease and environmental exposure. Their study, “S-Nitrosylation of PINK1 Attenuates PINK1/Parkin-Dependent Mitophagy in hiPSC-Based Parkinson’s Disease Models,” appeared in the journal Cell Reports. It shows that too many reactive nitrogen molecules…

Adding obstacle-avoiding virtual reality training to treadmill workouts dramatically decreases Parkinson’s patients’ falls, even in later stages of the disease, a Tel Aviv University study shows. The research, “Disparate effects of training on brain activation in Parkinson disease,” was published in the journal Neurology. Parkinson’s causes the gradual loss…

Synpromics and University College London are working together to create non-naturally-occurring DNA combinations that can be used to develop a gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Every gene requires a naturally occurring combination of DNA known as a promoter to code and produce a protein. Synpromics and UCL will develop synthetic promoters…