News

Estrogen enhances neuroprotective effects of cytisine in female mice

Estrogen, a female sex hormone, was found to enhance the neuroprotective effects of cytisine, a smoking cessation drug, in a female mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. That’s according to a study conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University, which analyzed the effects of cytisine in female mice that had…

MJFF grant to fund preclinical study of paxalisib for Parkinson’s

A grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) will allow Australia-based Kazia Therapeutics to explore the potential of paxalisib — an investigational anticancer drug now being tested in clinical trials — as a repurposed treatment for Parkinson’s disease. The research grant will fund…

FDA approves Medtronic’s adaptive DBS system for Parkinson’s

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Medtronic’s BrainSense adaptive deep brain stimulation (DBS) system and electrode identifier to treat people with Parkinson’s disease. Among available DBS systems, BrainSense is the first to automatically adapt its stimulation for a more personalized treatment approach, the company noted. Specifically,…

Subsense gets $17M to develop brain-computer interface

Subsense has received $17 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of a nanoparticle-based brain-computer interface to help monitor and treat people with neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease. The funding will help the company develop nanoparticles for precise stimulation and monitoring of brain activity, along with hardware…

AskBio’s gene therapy AB-1005 granted FDA’s RMAT status

AB-1005, AskBio’s investigational gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease, has been granted regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). RMAT designation is intended to speed the development and review of therapies that have shown potential to treat serious or life-threatening conditions. Benefits…

Nanobody developed that may prevent alpha-synuclein aggregation

Researchers in the U.K. have successfully generated small antibodies, or nanobodies, that can target toxic aggregates of misfolded proteins, including alpha-synuclein, a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. The antibodies, which were generated using a new antibody-discovery platform, can help understand how protein clumps, or aggregates are formed, and identify specific…

Researchers ID gene enhancers possibly linked to Parkinson’s

Gene enhancers may play an important role in neuronal development and neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, a study found. Enhancers work to turn on the activity of their target genes. Experiments showed that mutations previously linked to Parkinson’s were found within these enhancer regions, and that the enhancers…