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Factors such as exposure to environmental toxins and repeated blows to the head — all of which can be reduced with prevention efforts — may account for nearly 1 in 3 cases of Parkinson’s disease among men, and 1 in 4 among women. That’s according to a study of…

Researchers have figured out a new way to predict how brain cells communicate, which may have important implications for how deep brain stimulation (DBS) — a Parkinson’s disease treatment that involves implanting a device to stimulate targeted regions of the brain — is delivered. The ultimate goal, according to…

Alpha-synuclein — the protein that forms toxic clumps in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease — may travel from enteroendocrine cells lining the gut to the brain through the vagus nerve, according to a study aiming to build on previous evidence of a gut-brain axis in Parkinson’s.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given Zydus Lifesciences a green light to conduct a Phase 2 trial of ZYIL1, an oral inhibitor of NLRP3 — a protein that’s linked to brain inflammation, or neuroinflammation — in people with Parkinson’s disease. The trial will evaluate the safety…

A pathologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSA) is studying whether a treatment developed to aid in recovery from a stroke can be used as a preventive intervention for dysphagia in early Parkinson’s disease. Giselle Carnaby, who is also a public health scientist,…

Nuplazid (pimavanserin) outperformed a placebo at managing psychosis in people with Parkinson’s disease dementia in a Phase 3 clinical trial. This finding “supports the maintenance of antipsychotic efficacy and safety of [Nuplazid] in patients with Parkinson’s disease dementia and psychosis,” the researchers wrote. Their study, “…

A ceramic blanket, a device being developed by Gladiator Therapeutics to improve blood flow and speed up wound healing, improved motor performance in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease in a recent study. Besides improving balance and movement, the blanket also resulted in an increased number of cells…

Scientists have developed a more efficient method for using stem cells to create new dopaminergic neurons, the dopamine-making nerve cells whose death and dysfunction causes Parkinson’s disease. The technique was detailed in Nature Communications, in the study, “Enhanced production of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons from lineage-restricted human…

Researchers have developed a three-dimensional brain organoid — a “mini-organ” model of the brain — that replicates a human neural network known as the “dopaminergic reward pathway” in structure and function. Despite the importance of the neurotransmitter dopamine in Parkinson’s disease, key mechanisms of this brain system are not…

Vanqua Bio will initiate clinical development of VQ-101 — a small molecule capable of penetrating the brain — in the first quarter of 2024, the company announced. The clinical testing will involve both healthy volunteers and individuals with Parkinson’s disease associated with mutations in the GBA gene.