News

Remote health monitoring company Empatica is partnering with the consortium Mobilise-D to advance the use of digital endpoints in clinical care and research across disorders that include Parkinson’s disease. The collaboration will integrate Mobilise-D’s validated digital mobility outcomes (DMOs) with Empatica’s Health Monitoring Platform. With this,…

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have shown that reducing dopamine signaling in the brain can impair people’s ability to recognize emotions or understand others’ mental states (mentalizing), symptoms that may be experienced by those with Parkinson’s disease. The study, “Disruption of dopamine D2/D3 system function impairs the…

Merck, in collaboration with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), is providing a service to the scientific community to detect low levels of phospho-serine [pS65]-Ub, a biomarker associated with nerve cell dysfunction in people with Parkinson’s disease. The SMCxPRO platform is an ultrasensitive…

Patient enrollment is now complete in a Phase 2 trial that’s assessing the safety and efficacy of oral risvodetinib, being developed by Inhibikase Therapeutics to slow or stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease. The 201 trial (NCT05424276) has enrolled 120 participants across 32 sites in the U.S.,…

Changes in how regions of the brain interact with each other, which occur during the surgical procedure for deep brain stimulation (DBS), can temporarily ease motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, even before the electrical stimulation is turned on, a study finds. The microlesion effect, as this temporary improvement…

Scientists at the University of Dundee in Scotland said they have uncovered the mechanisms behind the activation of the PINK1 protein, an enzyme that protects the brain against nerve cell degeneration and the development of Parkinson’s disease. They discovered how PINK1, which detects damage in mitochondria — the cell’s…

Remote assessments using smartphones and smartwatches could be used to detect and monitor changes in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, according to findings from the WATCH-PD study. Over the course of one-year of follow-up, an Apple Watch paired with an iPhone was able to…

Taking levodopa, the mainstay of treatment for Parkinson’s disease, results in two key brain regions for movement strongly connecting and easing resting tremor, a study finds. The study led by Ann-Maree Vallence, PhD, of Murdoch University’s Centre for Healthy Ageing in Australia, offers an avenue to target the…

A new ultra-high-performance brain imaging PET system called NeuroEXPLORER allows for the direct imaging of deep regions of the brain, that is, the brain nuclei, and may help diagnose and advance treatments for brain diseases, including Parkinson’s disease. The research was presented at the 2024 Society of Nuclear…

Six genetic variants associated with mortality and motor progression have been discovered in people with Parkinson’s disease. These newly detected genetic factors that influenced disease progression were largely different from those that increased Parkinson’s risk, researchers found. “This work will help us to better understand the biology of [Parkinson’s]…