Feature Channels: Parkinson’s Disease

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Below are some of the latest headlines in the Women's Health channel on Newswise.

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The cyanobacterial origin of β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), an environmental neurotoxin, remains controversial. With a carefully designed genetic system as a control, we found no evidence for the production of BMAA by cyanobacteria from lab cultures or bloom samples.

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ParkinSINGs Program at JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Center Receives Support from Parkinson’s Foundation

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Researchers are gaining new insights into neurological diseases by studying circular RNAs (circRNAs) in brain cells.

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A new Northwestern Medicine study challenges a common belief in what triggers Parkinson’s disease. Degeneration of dopaminergic neurons is widely accepted as the first event that leads to Parkinson’s.

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Even the best treatment approaches for Parkinson’s disease are inadequate if they do not address patients’ feelings of social rejection, isolation, loneliness and other psychosocial effects of stigma, according to a report from experts specializing in Parkinson’s and other movement disorders.

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SMU biology professor Zhihao Wu has received a $1.8 million, 5-year Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institutes of Health to determine if different quality control pathways in our bodies might be working together to repair damaged components in cells.

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Scientists have identified a series of processes that help the brain adapt to damage caused by breakdowns in circuits that govern movement, cognition and sensory perception.

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The Speech Accessibility Project is almost halfway through its first phase of gathering voice recordings from people with Parkinson’s. Project participant and Parkinson's advocate Ethan Henderson can comment.

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En julio, salió al mercado el primer análisis de sangre directo al consumidor diseñado para evaluar el riesgo de un usuario de desarrollar la enfermedad de Alzheimer.

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In July, the first direct-to-consumer blood test designed to assess a user’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease hit the market.

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Most of us who’ve reached middle age have noticed a slowing in memory and cognition, but scientists don’t have a clear picture of the molecular changes that take place in the brain to cause it. Now, a study in mice has determined that the most pronounced changes occur in the white matter, a type of nervous system tissue that’s integral to transmitting signals across the brain.

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Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, working with technology company Faculty AI, have shown that machine learning can accurately predict subtypes of Parkinson’s disease using images of patient-derived stem cells.

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Robert E. Gross, MD, PhD, a renowned neurosurgeon who has led collaborative teams of clinician-scientists in the pursuit of improving the quality of life for patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders, has been appointed joint chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Rutgers Health. Gross also will serve as the senior vice president for neurosurgical services at RWJBarnabas Health.

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Scientists from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology have found that the use of brain-computer interfaces can help speed up the rehabilitation of patients who have suffered a stroke.

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Accumulation and deposition of amyloid can cause a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The degradation of this accumulation is the most widely accepted therapeutic strategy. The study on amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers in vitro found that high-frequency terahertz (THz) wave at a specific frequency could be served as a physical, efficient, nonthermal denaturation way to delay the fibrotic process with a speed of 80 per cent.

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The Annals of Neurology study led by Mallory Hacker, PhD, MSCI, assistant professor of Neurology, with senior author David Charles, MD, professor and vice-chair of Neurology, may offer new hope to the nearly 100,000 new cases of Parkinson’s diagnosed each year.

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Feathers, fins or fur, all pets can make us feel happier. Now, new research from the University of South Australia shows that pet ownership and pet care can also support communication and wellbeing, especially for people with acquired language difficulties such as aphasia.

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It's fragile X awareness month, and the NIH has renewed funding for a key study of the neurodegenerative condition fragile X-associated tremor ataxia syndrome (FXTAS).

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What makes the vital layer of protective cells around the brain and spinal cord — the blood-brain barrier — more or less permeable has been one of the more mystifying questions in neuroscience.

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Protein aggregates accumulate during aging and are linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Huntington’s disease.

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The brain and the digestive tract are in constant communication, relaying signals that help to control feeding and other behaviors. This extensive communication network also influences our mental state and has been implicated in many neurological disorders.

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According to a study published in Cell Reports, the tiny implantable devices formed stable, long-lasting and seamless tissue-electrode interfaces with minimal scarring or degradation in rodents.

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Getting regular exercise such as cycling, walking, gardening, cleaning and participating in sports may decrease the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to new research published in the May 17, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found female participants who exercised the most had a 25% lower rate of Parkinson’s disease when compared to those who exercised the least. The study does not prove that exercise lowers the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. It only shows an association.

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Through a novel pairing of epidemiology and toxicity screening, UCLA and Harvard researchers were able to identify 10 pesticides that were directly toxic to key neurons.

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Impairments in the lymphatic system may contribute to brain diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. Researchers have found a noninvasive and nonpharmaceutical method to influence glymphatic transport using focused ultrasound, opening the opportunity to use the method to further study brain diseases and brain function.

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University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers have developed a groundbreaking new diagnostic technique that will allow for faster and more accurate detection of neurodegenerative diseases that affect humans, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and similar diseases that affect animals, such as chronic wasting disease (CWD) and mad cow disease.

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This agreement will enable FAU and Insightec to collaborate to advance scientific knowledge about the use of focused ultrasound to treat brain diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. By harnessing acoustic energy, Insightec’s innovative technology uses focused ultrasound to treat diseases in different ways.

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Researchers at the University of Delaware ran an fMRI study to investigate the neural correlates of lower limb movements in individuals with and without PD. Groundbreaking research demonstrates that multiple motor regions in the brain are underactive during lower limb movements in people with Parkinson’s disease.

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Researcher will discuss the study which involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia, hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

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While strategies for regenerating or replacing lost neurons from stem cells are being developed, an alternative treatment option is the protection of existing neurons to prevent their degeneration, a recent study published in Stem Cell Reports suggests.

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Rigshospitalet and Aarhus University have joined forces with the Danish health technology company, T&W Engineering, and they have just received DKK 15 million in funding from Innovation Fund Denmark for their potentially ground-breaking project for people with serious brain diseases.

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In a study published in Nature Communications, a team led by Krembil Brain Institute at UHN Senior Scientists, Drs. Lorraine Kalia and Suneil Kalia, and University of Toronto (U of T) Professor, Dr. Philip M. Kim, identified a protein-protein interaction that contributes to Parkinson's disease. In the disease, a protein called α-synuclein (a-syn) accumulates in the brain and leads to cell death.

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A UC Davis study is the first to report on a material transfer mechanism from cells, known as oligodendrocytes, to neurons in the brain of a mouse model. This discovery opens new possibilities for understanding brain maturation and finding treatments for many neurological conditions.

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Dr. Jamie Toms is the only neurosurgeon in the north Louisiana area who performs a life-changing procedure which can get rid of tremors for patients with movement disorders, including Parkinson’s. It is called Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS).

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The presence of a misfolded alpha-synuclein protein can be used to determine if people have Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study using technology developed by a researcher at UTHealth Houston. This biomarker could pave the way for the development of better diagnostic tools and new treatment options for the disease.