Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Latest Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Eye movements of Parkinson’s disease patients during sentence comprehension support subcortical role in processing syntax

The study of the neural basis of language has largely focused on regions in the cortex – the outer brain layers thought by many researchers to have expanded during human evolution.

4 Aug 2009

Hypertension may lead to ‘silent’ strokes

"Silent" strokes, which are strokes that don't result in any noticeable symptoms but cause brain damage, are common in people over 60, and especially in those with high blood pressure, according to a study published in the July 28, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

28 Jul 2009

Maternal exposure to nanoparticles related to neurological dysfunction in the mouse

Maternal exposure to nanoparticles of titanium dioxide (TiO2) affects the expression of genes related to the central nervous system in developing mice. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology found that mice whose mothers were injected with the nanoparticles while pregnant showed alteration in gene expression related to neurological dysfunction.

28 Jul 2009

Discovery of potential treatment for spinal muscular atrophy

Spinal Muscular Atrophy is the second-leading cause of infant mortality in the world. Ravindra Singh, associate professor in biomedical sciences at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, would like to see Spinal Muscular Atrophy lose its high ranking and even slide off the list altogether.

28 Jul 2009

California budget could force seniors to nursing homes, drive up costs

NPR reports that California's $26.3 billion budget deficit is marginalizing seniors who rely on California state-provided health care and service to help them manage their lives.

20 Jul 2009

New perspectives in the treatment of disease

The team, led by Professor Matthias Mann of Novo Nordisk Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany, have detected 3,600 acetylation switches in 1,750 different proteins.

17 Jul 2009

Scientists create new way to study brain function

Scientists at Duke University and the University of North Carolina have devised a chemical technique that promises to allow neuroscientists to discover the function of any population of neurons in an animal brain, and provide clues to treating and preventing brain disease.

15 Jul 2009

HELP Committee approves protection for high tech drug companies from generics

"Senators agreed Monday to give high-tech biologic drugs 12 years of market protection before generic versions can compete," according to The Associated Press.

15 Jul 2009

New insight into apoptosis

A study by Nanyang Technological University (NTU)'s Assistant Professor Li Hoi Yeung, Assistant Professor Koh Cheng Gee and their team have made an important contribution to the understanding of the process that cells go through when they die. This process known as 'apoptosis' or programmed cell death, is a normal process in the human body which removes perhaps a million cells a second.

14 Jul 2009

Novel drug discovery tool could bring new therapies for Parkinson’s

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have turned simple baker?s yeast into a virtual army of medicinal chemists capable of rapidly searching for drugs to treat Parkinson's disease.

13 Jul 2009

Controlling the fate of cells

A protein found in cells has been shown to play a pivotal role in determining whether a cell lives or dies.

13 Jul 2009

Pesticide levels in blood linked to Parkinson's disease

People with Parkinson's disease have significantly higher blood levels of a particular pesticide than healthy people or those with Alzheimer's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

13 Jul 2009

Xerostomia linked to use of multiple medications

Approximately ninety-one percent of dentists say patients complaining about dry mouth are taking multiple medications, according to a nationwide member survey conducted by the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD).

9 Jul 2009

Research may hold key to maintaining embryonic stem cells in lab

In a new study that could transform embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered why mouse ES cells can be easily grown in a laboratory while other mammalian ES cells are difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.

9 Jul 2009

Obama administration releases final rules on stem cell research

The Obama administration released final regulations governing stem cell research on Monday. The New York Times reports that the rules will allow many older stem cell lines to be eligible for federally financed research.

7 Jul 2009

Alzheimer's patients fight for quicker Medicare coverage

NPR reports on the struggle of Alzheimer's patients who don't have health insurance trying to find ways to pay for their care and lobby for greater protections for themselves.

7 Jul 2009

Scientists step closer to first artificial nerve cell

Scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet and Linköping University are well on the way to creating the first artificial nerve cell that can communicate specifically with nerve cells in the body using neurotransmitters. The technology has been published in an article in Nature Materials.

7 Jul 2009

Enzyme fights mutated protein in inherited Parkinson's disease

An enzyme that naturally occurs in the brain helps destroy the mutated protein that is the most common cause of inherited Parkinson's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

28 Jun 2009

Mouse model of Parkinson's reproduces non-motor symptoms

The classic symptoms of Parkinson's disease involve tremor, stiffness and slow movements. Over the last decade, neurologists have been paying greater attention to non-motor symptoms, such as digestive and sleep problems, loss of sense of smell and depression.

23 Jun 2009

Telemedicine expands reach of care for Parkinson’s patients

A unique and innovative telemedicine project is providing distant nursing home patients with Parkinson's disease access to neurologists at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC).A pilot study of the project - the results of which were released this month at the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders in Paris - demonstrates that the system can improve the quality of life and motor function of patients.

17 Jun 2009