Category Archives: Parkinson’s Treatment

ScienceDaily (June 29, 2012) A recent study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) revealed that the FOXO1 gene may play an important role in the pathological mechanisms of Parkinson's disease. These findings are published online in PLoS Genetics, a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science. The study was led by Alexandra Dumitriu, PhD, a postdoctoral associate in the department of neurology at BUSM. Richard Myers, PhD, professor of neurology at BUSM, is the study's senior author. According to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease each year and approximately one million Americans are currently living with the disease. Parkinson's disease is a complex neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a buildup of proteins in nerve cells that lead to their inability to communicate with one another, causing motor function issues, including tremors and slowness in movement, as well as dementia. The substantia nigra is an area of the midbrain that helps control movement, and previous research has shown that this area of the brain loses neurons as Parkinson's disease progresses. The researchers analyzed gene expression differences in brain tissue between 27 samples with known Parkinson's disease and 26 samples from … Continue reading →

June 28, 2012 WASHINGTON, DC Patients with Parkinsons disease who undergo deep brain stimulation (DBS) a treatment in which a pacemaker-like device sends pulses to electrodes implanted in the brain can expect stable improvement in muscle symptoms for at least three years, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs study appearing in the most recent issue of the journal Neurology. VA was proud to partner with the National Institutes of Health in this research, said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. Our research on Parkinsons helps ensure we continue to provide the best care possible for veterans with this debilitating disease. VA cares for approximately 40,000 veterans with the condition. In DBS, surgeons implant electrodes in the brain and run thin wires under the skin to a pacemaker-like device placed at one of two locations in the brain. Electrical pulses from the battery-operated device jam the brain signals that cause muscle-related symptoms. Thousands of Americans have seen successful results from the procedure since it was first introduced in the late 1990s. But questions have remained about which stimulation site in the brain yields better outcomes, and over how many years the gains persist. Initial results from the study appeared … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/lb6wfj/handbook_of_parkin) has announced the addition of the "Handbook of Parkinson's Disease" book to their offering. This blue-ribbon guide has long prevailed as one of the leading resources on Parkinson's Disease (PD). Fully updated with practical and engaging chapters on pathology, neurochemistry, etiology, and breakthrough research, this source spans every essential topic related to the identification, assessment, and treatment of PD. Reflecting the many advances that have taken place in the management of PD, this source promotes a multidisciplinary approach to care and supplies new sections on the latest pharmacologic, surgical, and rehabilitative therapies, as well as essential diagnostic, imaging, and nonmotor management strategies for PD. Key Topics Covered: Early Iconography of Parkinson's Disease Epidemiology of Parkinsonism Differential Diagnosis of Parkinsonism Pathophysiology and Clinical Assessment of Parkinsonian Symptoms and Signs Autonomic Dysfunction and Management Sleep Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease Continue reading here: Research and Markets: Handbook of Parkinson's Disease - Blue-Ribbon Guide … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (June 27, 2012) An international team including scientists from the University of Saskatchewan-Saskatoon Health Region and University of British Columbia, with the help of Saskatchewan Mennonite families, has identified an abnormal gene which leads to Parkinson's disease. "This discovery paves the way for further research to determine the nature of brain abnormalities which this gene defect produces," says Dr. Ali Rajput, a world expert in Parkinson's disease who has been studying the disease for 45 years and working with the main family in the study since 1983. "It also promises to help us find ways to detect Parkinson's disease early, and to develop drugs which will one day halt the progression of the disease." The abnormal gene is a mutated version of a gene called DNAJC13, identified by UBC medical genetics professor Matthew Farrer, who led the study. Thirteen of 57 members of one extended Saskatchewan family in the study had been previously diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Three other single cases from Saskatchewan and one family from British Columbia were also found to have the same mutation. All were of Mennonite background, a Christian group who share Dutch-German-Russian ancestry. The findings were presented last week to the more than … Continue reading →

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- KineMed, Inc. (www.kinemed.com) announced today a further award of $1.2 Million from The Michael J. Fox Foundation towards the ongoing development of kinetic biomarkers that drug developers can use to accelerate and reduce the cost of trials of treatments for Parkinsons disease (PD). The lack of validated biomarkers for Parkinsons disease is a major hurdle to PD drug development today and so, our Foundation is invested in this critical research, said Mark Frasier, Ph.D., Vice President, Research Programs for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research. KineMeds cross-sectional study will look to confirm existing data that we have funded, which has identified biomarkers that are sensitive to subtle changes early in the disease process. We are proud to be extending our work with The Michael J. Fox Foundation and thank the Foundation for this ongoing commitment which recognizes that the development of better biomarkers plays a key role in accelerating progress towards a cure for Parkinsons disease, said Dr. Patrizia Fanara, Ph.D., Vice President of Neuroscience, KineMed, The current difficulty in advancing a cure is the pharmaceutical industrys challenge to appraise the myriad proposed treatment strategies in concise, cost-effective trials. Our cerebrospinal fluid kinetic biomarkers measure … Continue reading →

LOUIVILLE University of Louisville researchers hoping to find a cure for Parkinsons disease have discovered an unlikely potential treatment -- stem cells from the human nose. Videos from a laboratory at Louisville reveal the promise: One shows a rat with a brain damaged to mimic Parkinsons continually circling the bottom of a bowl in one direction, unable to do anything else. Another shows a similar rat injected with nasal stem cells moving normally and trying to climb out. The research -- which uses an adult patients own cells -- is outlined in this months issue of the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine. I think it would be wonderful to have thought of something that could help people. Thats what Im in this for, said Louisville neuroscientist Fred Roisen, chief science officer and co-founder of a company based on the technology called RhinoCyte. Parkinsons -- which afflicts about a million Americans, including Louisville-born boxing legend Muhammad Ali -- is a progressive neurological disorder that mostly strikes people over 50, causing tremors, slow movement and other problems. It occurs when nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine, a chemical that helps control muscle movement, are slowly destroyed. It is a terrible … Continue reading →

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Van Andel Institute announces that researchers at Lund University in Sweden have published a study detailing how Parkinson's disease spreads through the brain. Experiments in rat models uncover a process previously used to explain mad cow disease, in which misfolded proteins travel from sick to healthy cells. "A major unmet medical need is a therapy that slows disease progression," said Patrik Brundin M.D., Ph.D., Jay Van Andel Endowed Chair in Parkinson's Research at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), Head of the Neuronal Survival Unit at Lund University and senior author of the study. "We aim to better understand how Parkinson's pathology progresses and thereby uncover novel molecular targets for disease-modifying treatments." Previous research demonstrates that a misfolded protein gradually appears in healthy neurons transplanted to the brains of Parkinson's patients. In the current study, published this week in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) One, researchers were able to follow events in the recipient cell as it accepts the diseased protein. The experiments also show how the transferred proteins attract proteins in the host cell leading to abnormal folding or "clumping" inside the cells. "This is a cellular process likely to lead to … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Berg Pharma, a Boston-based pharmaceutical company and the renowned Parkinson's Institute announced a unique partnership that would enable a more robust modeling in the investigation of Parkinson's Disease (PD). There are approximately one million Americans who live with the disease with 50,000 new cases per year and this rate is expected to rise with an aging baby boomer population. The underlying pathophysiology and disease understanding of PD still remains elusive due to a combination of disease complexity and lack of predictive capability of existing models. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120404/CL82745LOGO) Dr. William Langston, Founder, Scientific Director, and CEO of the Parkinson's Institute said, "We believe that with the in depth knowledge of Parkinson's disease we have at the Institute and the exciting new Berg Interrogative Biology platform, there is a real possibility that we accelerate our mission of finding the cause and cure for the disease, for these reasons we are very excited about this collaboration." The hallmark discovery of the association of MPTP and parkinsonism in 1982 by Dr. William Langston, an internationally renowned neurology researcher and advisor to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, opened the field up to research and today … Continue reading →

and much more than motor symptoms. A colleague handed me this paper, not just as an interesting aspect of Parkinsons, but as somewhat supportive paper for the role of serotonin in depression. I have said before that I think the serotonin theory of depression (as depicted in Zoloft commercials) is probably wrong, but my views are actually a bit more nuanced than that. The serotonin theory is probably wrong, but not because it is wrong, rather, it is oversimplified. I think that low serotonin levels on their own probably dont cause depression, but it looks like there may still be a role for serotonin in depressive symptoms, and this paper seems to agree. Science, its always more complicated than you think at first. Politis et al. Serotonin Neuron Loss and Nonmotor Symptoms Continue in Parkinsons Patients Treated with Dopamine Grafts Sci Trans Med, 2012. Parkinsons is something that no one wants to get. Its a degenerative disorder of the nervous system, which results in a wide variety of symptoms. Most people think of Parkinsons and picture a shuffling gait, severe hand tremor, slowness of movement and rigidity. But there are other symptoms as well, include depression, hallucinations, fatigue, sleep disturbances, … Continue reading →

Posted on June 25, 2012, Monday KOTA KINABALU: Parkinsons disease is a neuro-degenerative disease and it is estimated that there are about 15,000 Malaysians afflicted by it. According to the consultant neurologist of the Gleneagles Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Dr Mak Choon Soon, the disease is slightly more prevalent among men than women. It is a disease affecting the elderly where around one per cent of the people over 60 years globally would likely be affected by this disease, Mak said in a health talk on Parkinsons and heart diseases yesterday. He said the disease occurs due to the depletion of nerve cells in the substantia nigra resulting in the reduction of the neurotransmitter dopamine, to disrupt normal basal ganglia activities. The activation of other neuro-transmitters in the sub-thalamic nucleus and internal globus pallidus are symptoms and signs of this disease which include, amongst others, resting tremors, bradykinesia, rigidity, shuffling gait and postural instability, he said. Dr Mak also pointed out that five to ten per cent of family members of a sufferer are likely to be affected by the disease. Parkinsons disease does not result from something you have done or not done in the past. It is also … Continue reading →