News

Scientists at the University of Florida (UF) have developed an artificial intelligence-powered tool to help neurologists track Parkinson’s disease progression. The system analyzes video of patients’ performance on the finger-tapping test, a standard test that requires the patient to quickly tap the thumb and index finger about 10 times. It…

A transplant approach used to deliver ANPD001, an investigational stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease, to the brain was found to be safe and feasible in non-human primates. Data from these preclinical studies supported developer Aspen Neuroscience’s successful application to U.S. regulators seeking to launch a first-in-human…

Amprion is launching SAAmplify, a set of biomarker panels that can be used as a tool to help in the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions linked to the formation of toxic clumps of the protein alpha-synuclein. With its launch planned for this year, SAAmplify builds…

The number of active Parkinson’s disease clinical trials has remained relatively stable since 2019, but many investigational therapies — especially disease-modifying treatments intended to slow or stop disease progression — are failing to move forward from Phase 2 to Phase 3 trials, according to a report. A wide…

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville will soon treat movement disorders such as tremor and Parkinson’s disease using a minimally invasive technology called focused ultrasound (FUS) that delivers sound waves to specific regions in the brain. The approach, expected to become available in late summer or fall, uses…

Lowering the levels of healthy alpha-synuclein, which is naturally found in the brain, helped to suppress the spread of this protein’s toxic clumps in the brains of a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease, a study reports. The study, “Effects of local reduction of endogenous α-synuclein using…

A test to detect clumping alpha-synuclein protein in the blood — a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease — may help to diagnose the neurodegenerative condition and could also provide insight into how long an individual has been living with Parkinson’s, a new study reports. The study confirmed that the…

Merck‘s U.S. and Canada life sciences business, MilliporeSigma, signed a memorandum of understanding with Gene Therapy Research Institution (GTRI), a Japanese clinical-stage biotech company, to accelerate the development of a viral vector-based gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Under the terms of the non-binding agreement, which symbolizes the parties’…

Machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), was able to define three distinct subtypes of Parkinson’s disease based on how fast symptoms in newly diagnosed patients progressed, potentially helping doctors to more accurately detect the disease and predict its course. In the study led by Cornell University researchers,…

Depletion of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which occurs in people with Parkinson’s disease, disrupts the balance of motor pathways in the basal ganglia, a group of interconnected structures in the brain that facilitate movement, a study found. “We found that the relative strength of the two motor pathways switches in…