Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Latest Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Newly found antibodies may be body's natural defense against Alzheimer's

In an important advance in the battle against Alzheimer's disease, physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have identified naturally occurring antibodies in human blood that may help to defend against this form of dementia as well as other neurodegenerative diseases.

14 Jun 2007

Injected neural stem cells reduce Parkinson's symptoms in primates

Primates with severe Parkinson's disease were able to walk, move, and eat better, and had diminished tremors after being injected with human neural stem cells, a research team from Yale, Harvard, the University of Colorado, and the Burnham Institute report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

14 Jun 2007

Myelin and Huntington's disease

Last month, Dr. George Bartzokis, director of the UCLA Memory Disorders and Alzheimer's Disease Clinic, suggested in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia that the breakdown of a type of myelin that develops late in life promotes the buildup of toxic amyloid plaques long associated with Alzheimer's disease.

14 Jun 2007

Isradipine shown to slow down Parkinson's disease

Northwestern University researchers have discovered a drug that slows and may even halt the progression of Parkinson's disease.

14 Jun 2007

Cure for Parkinson's disease?

Scientists in the U.S. say they have discovered a drug that slows and might even stop the progression of Parkinson's disease.

11 Jun 2007

Researchers reprogram normal tissue cells into embryonic stem cells

Researchers at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA were able to take normal tissue cells and reprogram them into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells, the cells that are able to give rise to every cell type found in the body.

8 Jun 2007

Researchers turn normal tissue cells into embryonic stem cells

8 Jun 2007

Ethically universal stem cell lines

Human embryonic stem cells (hESC), those very young cells that are a biological blank slate, have the potential to become more specialized, contributing to the workings of a wide variety of organs and tissues.

8 Jun 2007

Researchers track human stem cells transplanted into rat brain

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have illuminated the path taken by human neural stem cells that were transplanted into the brains of rats and mice, and found that the cells successfully navigate toward areas damaged by stroke.

5 Jun 2007

Exposure to pesticides and traumatic head injury are associated with Parkinson's disease

The work, which is published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, was carried out under the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) Geoparkinson project, which aimed to investigate how genetic and environmental factors interact to cause Parkinson's disease and related conditions.

5 Jun 2007

World's first PET/MR images of the human brain

The world's first PET/MR images of the human brain, taken simultaneously by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and magnetic resonance (MR), debuted during the 54th Annual Meeting of SNM, the world's largest society for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine professionals, June 2-6 in Washington, D.C.

From Siemens Healthineers 5 Jun 2007

Better understanding of deep brain stimulation

Brain "pacemakers" that have helped ease symptoms in people with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders seem to work by drowning out the electrical signals of their diseased brains.

1 Jun 2007

MRI effective method for revealing anatomical details of soft tissues

Contrast agents can help to make these images even clearer and allow physiological processes to be followed in real time. Conventional gadolinium complexes currently used as MRI contrast agent cannot reveal anatomic structures.

1 Jun 2007

Parkinson's disease linked to pesticide exposure

Researchers in Britain have discovered that high levels of exposure to some pesticides may be bad for peoples' health.

31 May 2007

Pesticide exposure and head trauma increases risk for Parkinson's disease

Exposure to pesticides and traumatic head injury may have a causative role in Parkinson's disease, according to a study published online ahead of print in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

30 May 2007

Personality test could help doctors detect dementia with Lewy bodies

The study found that even before diagnosis, people with dementia with Lewy bodies displayed passive personality changes, such as diminished emotional response, disinterest in hobbies, repetitive behaviors, and growing apathy, or lack of interest, more often than those with Alzheimer's.

30 May 2007