Category Archives: Parkinson’s Treatment

Liv Osby, losby@greenvillenews.com 10:29 a.m. EST November 10, 2014 Saturdays Parkinsons Victory Summit includes sessions on deep brain stimulation, medication management, sleep, fall prevention and clinical trials.(Photo: Special to the Citizen-Times) Linda Morgan's first symptom was a twitching toe. She didn't think much of it until she noticed a constant tremor in her thigh as well. At first, doctors thought she had sciatica. But it turned out the Asheville woman was experiencing the first signs of Parkinson's disease. "It just got worse," said Morgan, 59, who was forced to retire from her job as a pharmacist in September. "And this year, I started having gait and balance problems. I started falling," she said. "And my speech is affected too." On Nov. 15, Morgan will be recognized as a "local hero" for her contributions to the Parkinson's community at a Victory Summit in Greenville, South Carolina. The Carolina Spine & Neurosurgery Center of Mission Health in Asheville is one of the sponsors. The free event for people with Parkinson's as well as their families and care partners brings together experts to share the latest on research and treatments along with practical tools for living with the disease. It was started by … Continue reading →

Though new University of Minnesota research could break ground on treatment for Parkinsons disease, Jackie Christensen, who was diagnosed with the illness 18 years ago, said she has a hard time imagining a fix for her daily struggles. Theres not a short answer, said Christensen, who is also the state of Minnesotas director for the Parkinsons Action Network. I think its hard to find a cure because we dont know what causes it in most cases. But Liqiang Chen, assistant professor at the Universitys Center for Drug Design, said he and his team of chemists have discovered powerful inhibitors that may be able to stop one of the diseases leading contributors. The results of their work were published in the September Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Each year, U.S. doctors diagnosebetween 50,000 and 60,000 people with Parkinsons in addition to the countrys existing 1 million cases. Chen said because the disease stems from the nervous system, its necessary for treatments to cross the barrier between the brain and the circulatory system but he said only about 2 percent of all FDA-approved drugs do so. In order to be effective, Chen said, the pill needs to cross the blood-brain barrier. A drug … Continue reading →

LINCOLN, Neb. For those who have Parkinson's disease, communicating with the people they love can be a daily struggle. There's no cure for the disease and the people who live with it have to find treatment that can alleviate their symptoms. 78-year-old Steve Gains says he was crawling up his own stairs before he did the LSVT Big and LSVT Loud program at CHI St. Elizabeth in Lincoln. The four week program is a new treatment for Parkinson's that he says helped him walk again. "Wonderful. I had given up in a manner of speaking. If it hadn't been for my wife and family, I would have gone downhill much faster, but when that came about when I had that change. It was literally as I have said millions of times being born again," said Gains. St. Elizabeth's now offers these two four-week programs that focus on speech and movement. Therapists teach techniques to Parkinson's patients designed to help improve brain functioning. Polly Ubben is a speech therapist at CHI St. Elizabeth and she says this program has developed in the last four years. Ubben worked with Gains just two years ago on his voice. "The Lee Silverman Voice Program … Continue reading →

For more than 30 years, stem cells have been the great hope of medical science. Given their remarkable ability to turn into any type of cell in the body, researchers have theorized that they could be used to treat and perhaps even cure all sorts of diseases and conditions from spinal cord injury to baldness. Progress has been painfully slow for most areas of research but this week researchers in Sweden are reporting a major advancein a possible stem cell treatment for Parkinson's. While the treatment has only been tried in rats, the scientists -- led byMalin Parmar, an associate professor of regenerative neurobiology at the Lund University -- said they believe the results are promising enoughto move to clinical trials in humans within a few years. A degenerative condition of the central nervous system, Parkinson's affects an estimated 7 to 10 million people worldwide. Actor Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's and Google co-founder Sergey Brin has a gene that makes him susceptible to the disease. Both have not only raised awareness of the disease through their celebrity but have contributed millions of dollars to advance research. Parkinson's is caused by the loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brain that … Continue reading →

New Danish-led research suggests that signs of brain aging can be postponed in mice if placed on a high-fat diet. In the long term, this opens the possibility of treatment of children suffering from premature aging and patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The research project is headed by the Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen and the National Institute of Health. When we get older, defects begin to develop in our nervous system, our brain loses some of its intellectual capacity, and the risk of developing diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's increases. Alzheimer's disease is currently the fastest-growing age-related disease. Throughout our lives, it is important that our cells -- to the extent possible -- keep our DNA undamaged, and, therefore, the cells have a system that repairs the damage that occurs all the time. Humans age when the repair system ceases to function. In diseases such as Alzheimer's, the researchers also see damage to the DNA A new research project headed by the Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen and the National Institute of Health has studied mice having a defect in their DNA repair system. In humans, this defect causes the disorder Cockayne syndrome, … Continue reading →

What are the Parkinson's drugs on the treatment pipeline? Dr. Peter LeWitt talks about continuous delivery Parkinson's medication currently in development. Listen to his full talk about the Parkinson's treatment pip... By: World Parkinson Coalition … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-Nov-2014 Contact: Andrew Gould andrew.gould@plymouth.ac.uk University of Plymouth @PlymUni A study led by a researcher from Plymouth University in the UK, has discovered that the inhibition of a particular mitochondrial fission protein could hold the key to potential treatment for Parkinson's Disease (PD). The findings of the research are published today, 5th November 2014, in Nature Communications. PD is a progressive neurological condition that affects movement. At present there is no cure and little understanding of why some people get the condition. In the UK one on 500 people, around 127,000, have PD. The debilitating movement symptoms of the disease are primarily caused by the death of a type of brain cell that produces a chemical called dopamine. This brain chemical (also known as a neurotransmitter) helps nerve cells to send signals to other nerve cells. A reduction in dopamine from cell death results in a lack of communication between nerve cells, which in turn leads to difficulty in movement control. Understanding why these nerve cells die or do not work properly could lead to new therapies for PD. Mitochondria are small structures within nerve cells that help keep the cells healthy and working properly they are, … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-Nov-2014 Contact: Vilhelm Bohr bohrV@grc.nia.nih.gov 410-558-8162 University of Copenhagen The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences New Danish-led research suggests that signs of brain aging can be postponed in mice if placed on a high-fat diet. In the long term, this opens the possibility of treatment of children suffering from premature aging and patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The research project is headed by the Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen and the National Institute of Health. When we get older, defects begin to develop in our nervous system, our brain loses some of its intellectual capacity, and the risk of developing diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's increases. Alzheimer's disease is currently the fastest-growing age-related disease. Throughout our lives, it is important that our cells to the extent possible keep our DNA undamaged, and, therefore, the cells have a system that repairs the damage that occurs all the time. Humans age when the repair system ceases to function. In diseases such as Alzheimer's, the researchers also see damage to the DNA A new research project headed by the Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen and the National Institute of Health has studied mice … Continue reading →

Rehovot-based central nervous system drug developer NeuroDerm today filed a revised prospectus with the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and announced the value of the IPO on Nasdaq. The company will seek to raise between $60-82 million at a company value of between $236 million and $290 million, after money. Jefferies and Cowen & Company are the joint bookrunners on the deal with Oppenheimer and Roth Capital acting as secondary underwriters. The company will trade under the NDRM ticker. If and when NeuroDerm, and orthopedic drug developer PolyPid Ltd., which set the terms of its Nasdaq IPO last week, complete their IPO, it would mean that a record 10 Israeli biomed companies would have held Nasdaq IPOs in 2014. NeuroDerm has developed a transdermal drug delivery system for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. The company's lead products achieve better results in maintaining uniform levels of the drug in the bloodstream, enabling more effective treatment of the disease with fewer side effects. NeuroDerm's main shareholders include Omrix Biopharmaceuticals founder Robert Taub (28%) who serves as Chairman, Uwe Wascher (25.9%) a former GE senior executive and close friend of Taub and private investor Prof. Shmuel Cabilly (22.2%), while Capital Point Ltd. … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 3-Nov-2014 Contact: Kim Deasy kim.deasy@rhul.ac.uk 01-784-443-967 Royal Holloway, University of London @RoyalHolloway A pioneering piece of technology will allow users to experience the world through the eyes of a person with Young-Onset Parkinson's disease- which could revolutionise the way carers and medical staff treat people with the degenerative condition. Analogue, a theatre company set up by alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London has designed Transports a piece of technology which uses a low cost Raspberry Pi computer system, and allows users to recreate symptoms including dizziness and speech problems, along with wearable technology which creates a 6Hz tremor in the participant's right hand. Young-Onset Parkinson's is a form of the neurological condition which affects people under the age of 50. Symptoms of the disease include tremors, slow movement and dizziness, and with no cure currently available, how care and treatment are managed can make a significant difference to a patient's quality of life. The revolutionary project has been designed in collaboration with neuroscience specialist, Professor Narender Ramnani from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, along with carers, researchers and people with the disease, at Parkinson's UK to ensure it is as effective and realistic as … Continue reading →