The Parkinson’s disease therapy entacapone may disrupt the balance of microbes in the gut by starving them of iron, a study in healthy human fecal samples suggests. Supplementing patients with iron could prevent entacapone’s gastrointestinal side effects, but more research is needed to fully understand how the medication affects…

L-dopa or levodopa, a standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease, forms a stable complex with iron and siderocalin, a protein involved in iron uptake by cells and found at higher levels in a brain region largely affected by Parkinson’s, a study shows. These early findings suggest that the formation…

Low levels of the hormone serotonin in the bloodstream of people with Parkinson’s disease were associated with a buildup of iron in the substantia nigra — the brain region most damaged in this disorder, a study reveals for possibly the first time. Researchers found this serotonin-iron relationship was primarily…

In Parkinson’s disease, iron accumulates in certain parts of the brain that have characteristic genetic profiles, according to a new study. This finding may help to explain the biological processes that cause Parkinson’s, which could be important for developing treatments. The study, “Regional brain iron…

Likely cognitive decline, dementia risk, and the severity of motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease might be tracked by measuring the amount of iron content in the brain, a study reports. These finding were described in the study “Brain iron deposition is linked with cognitive severity in Parkinson’s disease,”…

While excess iron in the brain often accompanies Parkinson’s disease, it remains unknown whether the iron overload actually causes the neurodegenerative disorder or is merely a product of it. New research now sheds greater light on the role that iron plays in the development of a Parkinson’s…

An experimental model of Parkinson’s in non-human primates leads to the accumulation of iron — known to contribute to the underlying causes of the disease — in a brain area linked to motor control. This metal accumulation can be detected using a neuroimaging technique called susceptibility-weighted imaging, according…

Cooper concentrations are significantly affected in the blood serum of Parkinson’s patients, suggesting this metal metabolism could somewhat influence the mechanisms behind this neurodegenerative disorder, a study reports. The results, “Assessment of copper, iron, zinc and manganese status and speciation in patients with Parkinson’s disease: A pilot study,”…

Parkinson’s disease patients with either depression or psychiatric symptoms such as hallucinations, confusion, or illusion may have higher levels of the mineral zinc in their hair, researchers report. Their study, “Higher zinc concentrations in hair of Parkinson’s disease are associated with psychotic complications and depression,” was published in…

Binding to, or chelating, toxic levels of iron in the brain can slow the progression of a neurodegenerative disorder known as pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN), results from a Phase 3 trial show. These findings may be relevant for other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and…