Researchers for the first time visualized how PINK1, a protein linked to early-onset Parkinson’s disease, binds to mitochondria and how it’s switched on to protect these energy-producing structures when they’re damaged. Using a high-resolution microscope to map the structure of the human version of PINK1 bound to damaged mitochondria,…

As people age, the immune system ages with them, becoming more sluggish and ineffective — a change that could contribute to Parkinson’s disease, Rebecca Wallings, a 2024 Parkinson’s Foundation Launch Award grant recipient, suggests. “As you age … your immune cells can become exhausted … slow, sluggish, and…

A study reports that the proteins NAP1 and SINTBAD play a role in regulating mitophagy, a process wherein damaged mitochondria are removed from cells, which is essential for helping them stay healthy. Mitophagy is impaired in Parkinson’s disease. “Targeting these proteins in [nerve cells] could be a potential avenue…

Lucy Therapeutics‘ (LucyTx) overall funding haul has grown to $36 million with the addition of $12.5 million more to support the company’s mitochondrial platform to develop new therapies for Parkinson’s disease.  The total funding will also buttress the development of Lucy’s therapeutic pipeline for Alzheimer’s disease and…

A new treatment that delivers healthy mitochondria to damaged nerve cells showed promise in cell and animal models of Parkinson’s disease, a study shows. “[T]he study findings provide evidence that mitochondria transplantation can be developed as a novel therapeutic for” Parkinson’s, researchers wrote in “Mitochondrial transplantation…

An experimental therapy called ASHA-091, which was seen to restore normal mitochondria function and possibly be disease modifying in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease, may soon be moving into clinical trials, its developer, Asha Therapeutics, reports. Problems with the workings of mitochondria, a cell’s…

ATH434, an experimental therapy that’s currently in clinical trials for a type of atypical parkinsonism known as multiple system atrophy (MSA), has antioxidant activities that may protect mitochondria and contribute to its therapeutic effects. Data supporting its actions were presented this month at the Society for Neuroscience in Washington,…

Vincere Biosciences has been given $700,000 in seed funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance in testing USP30 small molecule inhibitors, its candidate therapy aiming to slow or stop progression in Parkinson’s disease. Valid for two years, the Phase I Small Business…

Problems in quality control processes that support the health and function of mitochondria, crucial for cellular energy, are evident in nerve cells of people with Parkinson’s disease, a study showed. Mitochondrial recycling and protein balance were particularly impaired, which may impede energy production and lead to the early nerve…

An artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithm identified more than a dozen U.S.-approved medications that might be repurposed to treat Parkinson’s disease, all based on their ability to increase levels of the PINK1 protein. PINK1 is involved in the health and workings of mitochondria, the cells’ energy production centers, and has…