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Parkinson's & Movement disorders news

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Skin swabs could detect Parkinson's disease up to seven years before symptoms appear

A new study has revealed promising progress in developing a non-invasive sampling method to detect early signs of Parkinson's disease—up to seven years before motor symptoms appear—by analyzing the chemical makeup of ...

Medications

Weekly injection offers steady Parkinson's medication, reducing need for daily pills

A new weekly injectable drug could transform the lives of more than eight million people living with Parkinson's disease, potentially replacing the need for multiple daily tablets.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

'Harmless' virus might trigger Parkinson's disease, researchers say

A common virus once thought harmless to humans might be linked to Parkinson's disease, a new study says. The germ, Human Pegivirus (HPgV), was found in half the autopsied brains of patients with Parkinson's, but not in any ...

Neuroscience

Burden of tremor recognized for Parkinson's disease patients

Some 25 years ago, a young Parkinson's disease investigator, Robert Hauser, MD, stepped to the podium at an American Academy of Neurology Conference to present findings from his patient survey that didn't quite jibe with ...

Neuroscience

Q&A: Are mitochondria the key to a healthy brain?

Elizabeth Jonas first got interested in mitochondria by chance. In 1995, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Yale, working at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where she was trying to record electrical ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Theater can improves emotional symptoms of people with Parkinson's

A research team at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, working with the Hospital Sant Pau in Barcelona, has shown that theater can improve the emotional well‐being of people with Parkinson's disease. The study, "Efficacy ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

Blood test shows promise for early dementia with Lewy Bodies diagnosis

A research team has made a significant finding that sheds new light on dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). The team was led by Associate Professor Ayako Okado-Matsumoto from the Department of Biology at Toho University in collaboration ...

Genetics

Gene therapy may slow loss of motor function in ALS

Researchers have developed a gene therapy that significantly slowed motor function loss in preclinical models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), offering new hope for treating the devastating neurodegenerative disease.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

'ALS on a chip' model reveals altered motor neuron signaling

Using stem cells from patients with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), Cedars-Sinai has created a lifelike model of the mysterious and fatal disease that could help identify a cause of the illness as well as effective treatments.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Ear wax as a possible screening medium for Parkinson's disease

Most treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD) only slow disease progression. Early intervention for the neurological disease that worsens over time is therefore critical to optimize care, but that requires early diagnosis. ...

Neuroscience

How Parkinson's disease affects emotion recognition of voices

A new study in Neurodegenerative Diseases looks closely at how Parkinson's disease can affect something as everyday and essential as recognizing emotion in someone's voice. The research suggests that both the side of the ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Mouth and gut bacteria linked to brain changes in Parkinson's disease

Scientists have discovered a link between bacteria in the mouth and gut and the progression of cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease. Specific changes in these bacteria, known as the microbiome, have been associated with ...

Medications

Asthma drug could help to treat a rare neurological disorder

The asthma medication theophylline is a suitable drug for treating the rare neurological disorder ADCY5-related dyskinesia, according to a new study by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), which was published ...

Neuroscience

Sweet-spot brain stimulation may halt Parkinson's progression

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) neurologists and scientists, along with colleagues from Charité-Berlin University of Medicine, are reporting that the use of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in a very specific location ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Study raises possibility of immunotherapy treatment for ALS

New research reveals a type of monoclonal antibody already tested in certain forms of cancer may be a promising treatment in stopping the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Using prebiotics to help treat Parkinson's disease

Constipation can be caused by many factors, not all of them serious. But it could be a sign of Parkinson's disease. A new study from RUSH neurologist Deborah Hall, MD, looks into how the bowel and the brain are linked.

Medical research

New therapeutic target for Parkinson's disease discovered

Northwestern Medicine scientists have uncovered a new mechanism by which mutations in a gene parkin contribute to familial forms of Parkinson's disease. The discovery opens a new avenue for Parkinson's therapeutics, scientists ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

New research shows Lewy body disease can be detected before symptoms

Lewy body disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease. A research group from Lund University has now shown that the disease can be detected before symptoms appear, using a spinal ...

Neuroscience

Omega-3 fatty acids linked with slower progression of ALS

Consuming omega-3 fatty acids—particularly alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a nutrient found in foods including flaxseeds, walnuts, and chia, canola and soybean oils—may help slow the progression of disease in patients with ...