Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Latest Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Tooth cell banking for the treatment of future diseases

Pioneered by BioEDEN, tooth cell banking is a safe, natural and wholly non-invasive method of collecting and preserving precious stem cells which could hold the key to children's health.

25 Sep 2009

Study on mitochondria function

For such crucial biological actors, much remains unknown about exactly how mitochondria function. A new study, published Aug. 12 in the online journal PLoS One, sheds light on mitochondrial biology. Using genetic engineering, researchers interrupted the activity of individual genes directly involved in the production of energy within mitochondria. "If we knock down the function of specific system components, what happens?" said study leader Marni J. Falk, M.D., who directs the Mitochondrial-Genetics Disease Clinic at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Our ultimate goal is to translate the knowledge into targeted therapies, that is, effective ways to intervene. But first we need to understand the underlying disease mechanisms."

25 Sep 2009

Amorfix Life Sciences to present Amorfix's EP-vCJD blood screening test for vCJD at WFH Global Forum

Amorfix Life Sciences, a company focused on treatments and diagnostics for brain wasting diseases, announced today that its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. George Adams, will present Amorfix's EP-vCJD(TM) blood screening test for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ("vCJD") at the Sixth World Federation of Hemophilia ("WFH") Global Forum on the Safety and Supply of Treatment Products for Bleeding Disorders in Montreal, Quebec at 11:00 am ET on Friday, September 25, 2009.

24 Sep 2009

NIH awards three UNC Scientists for high risk and innovative research

Three scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have received prestigious awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aimed at encouraging "high risk" and innovative research.

24 Sep 2009

Rasagiline slows the rate of Parkinson's disease progression

Following one of the largest studies ever conducted in Parkinson's disease (PD), researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine report today in The New England Journal of Medicine that rasagiline, a drug currently used to treat the symptoms of PD, may also slow the rate of disease progression.

24 Sep 2009

ADAGIO clinical trial results demonstrating AZILECT's efficacy published

Results from the ADAGIO trial, published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated that Parkinson’s disease patients receiving AZILECT (rasagiline) 1mg/day at the start of the study (early-start group) experienced superior benefit over 18 months compared with those who started the exact same treatment nine months later (delayed-start group).

24 Sep 2009

FDA accepts Sangamo's IND for repeat-dosing in Phase 1 clinical trial of SB-728-T ZFN-based therapeutic

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed and accepted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate an open-label, repeat-dosing Phase 1 clinical trial (SB-728-T-902) of the company's ZFN-based therapeutic, SB-728-T. A single dose Phase 1 clinical study of SB-728-T was initiated in February 2009 and is ongoing at the University of Pennsylvania.

23 Sep 2009

Researching the causes of Alzheimer's disease

The standard explanation for what causes Alzheimer's is known as the amyloid hypothesis, which posits that the disease results from of an accumulation of the peptide amyloid beta, the toxic protein fragments that deposit in the brain and become the sticky plaques that have defined Alzheimer's for more than 100 years.

23 Sep 2009

Declining performance of muscles linked to harmful byproducts of air we breathe

If you think the air outside is polluted, a new research report in the September 2009 issue of the journal Genetics (http://www.genetics.org) might make you to think twice about the air inside our bodies too. That's because researchers show how about 3 percent of the air we breathe gets converted into harmful superoxides, which ultimately harm our muscles.

23 Sep 2009

UAB's researchers find early indicators for Alzheimer's disease

Inability to handle financial transactions or manage money may be an early indicator that a person with mild memory problems soon is likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, according to new research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Alzheimer's Disease Center, part of the Department of Neurology.

22 Sep 2009

Amorfix announces 100% specificity upon testing 10,000 blood donations for vCJD

Amorfix Life Sciences, a company focused on treatments and diagnostics for brain wasting diseases, today announced it has achieved 100% specificity (no reproducible false positive results) upon testing 10,000 blood donations for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ("vCJD"). with the EP-vCJD(TM) Blood Screening Assay at l'Etablissement Français du Sang de Pyrénées Méditerrannée ("EFS-PM") in Montpellier, France.

22 Sep 2009

Poor money management: A sign of developing Alzheimer's disease

New research finds poor money management skills may indicate that a person with mild memory problems will soon develop Alzheimer's disease. The study is published in the September 22, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

22 Sep 2009

Coenzyme Q10 to slow down the effects of Parkinson's disease?

Rush University Medical Center is participating in a large-scale, multi-center clinical trial in the U.S. and Canada to determine whether a vitamin-like substance, in high doses, can slow the progression of Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects about one million people in the United States.

22 Sep 2009

Phase II trial of Impax Pharmaceuticals' Parkinson’s disease drug candidate successful

Impax Pharmaceuticals, the brand products division of Impax Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: IPXL) today reported the positive results from a recently completed Phase II trial of its late-stage Parkinson’s Disease drug candidate IPX066

21 Sep 2009

Study reveals that KCNE2 and KCNQ1 mutations can results in thyroid dysfunction

Genes previously known to be essential to the coordinated, rhythmic electrical activity of cardiac muscle -- a healthy heartbeat -- have now also been found to play a key role in thyroid hormone (TH) biosynthesis, according to Weill Cornell Medical College researchers.

21 Sep 2009

"Our request for information gets denied by Governor's office": AWF Executive Director Brian Johnson

Last week, the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) called on Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson (D) to release financial documents and correspondence surrounding his Departments using taxpayer money and state resources to collect healthcare provider names and addresses for the Service Employee International Union (SEIU).

18 Sep 2009

Scientific discoveries must be translated into practical applications to improve patients' health

Experts gathered on Capitol Hill today to address the impact of policies related to translational research and U.S. medical innovation. The briefing, titled Translational Research: From Bench to Bedside, was sponsored by the Council for American Medical Innovation as the second in a three-part series, Recovery Through Discovery, which examines medical innovation as a driver of U.S. economic recovery and enhanced global leadership in science.

18 Sep 2009

Protein aggregation is linked to many conformational diseases

Researchers at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have revealed the process by which proteins with a tendency to cause conformational diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy, familial amyloidotic cardiomyopathy, etc. finally end up causing them.

17 Sep 2009

Findings may lead to drugs that destroy TB in dormant stage of lifecycle

Attempts to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) are stymied by the fact that the disease-causing bacteria have a sophisticated mechanism for surviving dormant in infected cells. Now, a team of scientists led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College has identified compounds that inhibit that mechanism -- without damaging human cells.

17 Sep 2009

Legislation grants improve research and employment initiatives in Indiana University medical campus

Indiana University School of Medicine scientists have received more than $12 million in grants funded by the federal economic stimulus legislation, funding that has bolstered both research initiatives and research employment on the medical center campus.

16 Sep 2009