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A clinical trial investigating the repurposed cancer drug nilotinib in people with Parkinson’s disease finds that it is reasonably safe and well tolerated. Researchers also report finding an increase in dopamine, the chemical lost as a result of neuronal destruction, and a decrease in neurotoxic proteins in the brain among study participants. Finally, they say nilotinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, potentially halts motor and non-motor decline.

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Brain imaging of veterans with Gulf War illness show varying abnormalities after moderate exercise that can be categorized into two distinct groups — an outcome that suggests a more complex illness that previously thought.

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When FDA approved palbociclib (Ibrance ®), there was very little data about the safety of this drug in people with benign ethnic neutropenia (BEN), which is common in women of color. Some of these women didn’t qualify for the clinical trials because of the required blood count, which is lower in women with BEN.

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Prior to an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, a person in the early stages of the disease faces a heightened risk of adverse financial outcomes — a likely consequence of compromised decision making when managing money, in addition to exploitation and fraud by others.

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Gulf War Illness (GWI) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) share symptoms of disabling fatigue, pain, systemic hyperalgesia (tenderness), negative emotion, sleep and cognitive dysfunction that are made worse after mild exertion (postexertional malaise). Now, neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have evidence, derived from human brain studies, that GWI and CFS are two distinct disorders that affect the brain in opposing ways.

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Georgetown neuroscientists say they have identified how people can have a “crash in visual processing” — a bottleneck of feedforward and feedback signals that can cause us not to be consciously aware of stimuli that our brain recognized.

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Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center say they have developed and tested an agent that reduces the buildup of toxic proteins in animal models of both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and improves cognitive and motor behavior.

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Human-made toxic chemicals that linger indefinitely in the environment disrupt the performance of critical helper cells in the mouse brain, leading to impaired function over long-term exposures.

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Women with an aggressive, less-common type of breast cancer, known as triple-negative, versus a more common form of the disease, could be differentiated from each other by a panel of 17 small RNA molecules that are directly influenced by genetic alterations typically found in cancer cells.

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New brain imaging research debunks a controversial theory about dyslexia that can impact how it is sometimes treated. The cerebellum, a brain structure traditionally considered to be involved in motor function, has been implicated in the reading disability, developmental dyslexia, however, this “cerebellar deficit hypothesis” has always been controversial. The new research shows that the cerebellum is not engaged during reading in typical readers and does not differ in children who have dyslexia.

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Georgetown University Medical Center, a Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) Association Research Center of Excellence, is now offering three clinical trials to study new treatments for LBD, a disease often confused with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

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The pending deal for Altria to purchase 35% of Juul Labs should serve as a “wake-up call” for the careful monitoring of competition in the nicotine delivery market, and for evaluating how regulations and policies impact cigarette and non-cigarette firms selling alternative nicotine delivery products, says a Georgetown University professor.

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Researchers have decoded a chain of molecules that are critical for the growth and survival of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma—the most common and also the most lethal form of pancreatic cancer.

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Resistance to two critical antibiotic types, one a “drug of last resort” when all others fail against some “superbugs,” are widely distributed in Southeast Asia, raising the risk of untreatable infections, say a team of investigators led by Georgetown University Medical Center.

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In the first of a kind study, plastic surgeons at Georgetown University Medical Center found that when a man chose to have a nip or a tuck on his face, it significantly increased perceptions of attractiveness, likeability, social skills, or trustworthiness.

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One of the largest studies on out-of-pocket costs for nursing home care finds prices are high and rising faster than other medical care and consumer prices, reports a team of health policy researchers.

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A combination of elevated symptoms of depression along with modifications in a gene responsible for dopamine activity, important to the brain’s pleasure and reward system, appear to influence an addiction to indoor tanning in young, white non-Hispanic women.

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When it comes to buying probiotics, most product labels do not give consumers enough information to make an informed decision, according to a research team led by Georgetown University Medical Center.

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Georgetown University Medical Center announces the launch of the only known therapeutic (disease modifying) clinical trial for Lewy body dementia, a neurological disorder that affects a million people in the United States for which there are no approved medications that modify the disease.

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Cancer patients previously excluded and underrepresented in immunotherapy clinical trials, such as African Americans and patients with HIV or viral hepatitis, actually benefit at the same rate as patients tested in the clinical trials, according to a Georgetown-led study to be presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

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A survey conducted by Georgetown investigators found a significant knowledge and practice gap among community oncologists in the understanding and usage of genetic testing in determining patients' treatment plans and potential clinical trial outcomes.

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According to scientists who study women infected with HIV, statistics often paint an impressionist view of the lives of these women that misses the granular detail that tells the real story. The imprecise big picture is that most of this population is doing a good job at suppressing the virus, but facts gathered on the ground show that many struggle with issues of daily living that can make taking a pill to keep HIV at bay difficult.

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As many as 90 percent of individuals who have a parent with Huntington’s disease (HD) choose not to take a gene test that reveals if they will also develop the fatal disorder — and a new study details the reasons why. Understanding the “why” matters as new clinical trials testing therapies for people who haven’t yet developed symptoms of Huntington disease requires participants to be tested for the HD gene to be included in the trials.

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A new study suggests that Oncotype DX-guided treatment could reduce the cost for the first year of breast cancer care in the U.S. by about $50 million (about 2 percent of the overall costs in the first year). The study by Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and National Cancer Institute researchers was published April 24, in JNCI.

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Despite a mandate to help patients make better-informed health care decisions, a ten-year research program established under the Affordable Care Act has funded a relatively small number of studies that examine primary care, the setting where the majority of patients in the U.S. receive treatment.

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Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) announces the appointment of Deus Bazira, DrPH, MPH, MBA, BPharm, an expert in health systems strengthening and a public health practitioner with decades of in-depth field level practical experience in global health in emerging economies, to establish and co-direct Georgetown’s new Center for Global Health Practice and Impact (CGHPI).

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A consortium of researchers led by Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators have completed the largest analysis of a new gene fusion they believe is responsible for development of a wide spectrum of cancer types.

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Georgetown University faculty offer expertise for journalists seeking interviews in a variety of subjects related to Ebola. Topics include WHO, Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), International Health Regulations, infectious disease control and treatment, vaccine development, clinical trials, and global health security and law.

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As many as a billion people could be newly exposed to disease-carrying mosquitoes by the end of the century because of global warming, says a new study that examines temperature changes on a monthly basis across the world.

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Georgetown researchers have launched a series of mobile games in Nepal to reach young people with information about fertility awareness and family planning.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval today of atezolizumab (Tecentriq®, Genentech) in combination with chemotherapy (carboplatin and etoposide) for the initial treatment of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) marks the end of numerous failed attempts to improve survival for those with the deadly disease.

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Results of a first-of-its-kind prospective study with a family planning app find it to be as effective as other modern methods for avoiding an unplanned pregnancy, according to Georgetown researchers.

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The first arm of a phase II clinical trial by a research team at Georgetown University Medical Center testing the use of nilotinib in patients with Parkinson’s disease demonstrates precisely how the agent increases levels of dopamine in the brains of study participants.

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The immunotherapy that has revolutionized treatment of many cancers appear to offer similar benefit to cancer patients living with HIV.

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Findings from a novel online questionnaire of people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) suggest the majority of these patients do not receive proper care, say researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center in the first known investigation of the presentation of CFS in the emergency department.

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Direct-to-consumer DNA testing kits are expected to be a popular holiday gift this year, with 100 million people expected to have used one by 2020—but an expert genetic counselor at Georgetown says consumers should understand a few pros and cons before using one.

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The low unemployment rate in the U.S. — which fell to a 49 year-low in September and October — is good news to many people, but perhaps not to residents of nursing homes. A Georgetown University Medical Center study found that quality of care in nursing homes improves during periods of recession and worsens when the economy is good.

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Cigarette smoking dramatically decreased between 2013 and 2017 just as e-cigarette use became more popular, according to a comprehensive analysis examining the relationship between vaping and smoking among youth and young adults led by a Georgetown University investigator.

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A team of neurologists at Georgetown University Medical Center has found that inhibiting the USP13 molecule may be a therapeutic target in Parkinson’s disease and other similar forms of neurodegeneration.

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Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) will present Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a part of the National Institutes of Health, with its highest honor, the Cura Personalis Award, at a ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 4:00 p.m.

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Adolescents with a particular variant of an opioid receptor gene have less response in a part of prefrontal cortex that evaluates rewards, compared to those with the other version of the gene, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). The study will be presented Nov. 5 at Neuroscience 2018, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (abstract #7517).

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To the great surprise of cancer researchers in a Georgetown University-led study, a protein they investigated for its possible role in cancer turned out to be a powerful regulator of metabolism.

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Early results from a first-of-its-kind study by researchers from the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University Medical Center suggests that typical use of a certain family planning app is as effective as other modern methods for avoiding an unplanned pregnancy.