Dopaminergic News and Research

RSS

Clinicians should assess sleep-wake disturbances to understand physiology of Parkinson's disease

Nearly three-quarters of patients with Parkinson's disease experience fatigue or excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), but clinicians should assess both problems separately in order to improve the profession's understanding of their distinct, but overlapping, physiology. That is the key finding of a study published in the December issue of the European Journal of Neurology.

1 Dec 2010

Parkinson Society Canada awards Quebec scientists $573,384 for research

Quebec Parkinson researchers receive a record $573,384 in funding from Parkinson Society Canada to increase their efforts to identify the causes of this degenerative brain disease for which there is currently no cure. At a Research Innovation event in Montreal this evening, hosted by Parkinson Society Quebec in partnership with McGill University and the CHUM, 11 Parkinson scientists will be lauded for their efforts in getting closer to a cure.

23 Nov 2010

Santarus announces commercial U.S. launch of CYCLOSET for type 2 diabetes mellitus

Santarus, Inc., a specialty biopharmaceutical company, today announced the commercial U.S. launch of CYCLOSET (bromocriptine mesylate) tablets. CYCLOSET is a prescription drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus both as monotherapy and in combination with other oral antidiabetic agents.

15 Nov 2010

FDA reviews GSK's response to Complete Response letter for Horizant

GlaxoSmithKline and XenoPort, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review GSK's response to FDA's Complete Response letter for Horizant (gabapentin enacarbil) Extended-Release Tablets. Horizant is under review for the treatment of moderate-to-severe primary Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS).

8 Nov 2010

EFNS recommends use of DaTSCAN injection with SPECT imaging for AD diagnosis

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company, today announced that DaTSCAN (ioflupane I 123 injection), a radiopharmaceutical agent intended for use with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging of the brain, has been recommended in updated European Federation of the Neurological Societies (EFNS) guidelines for the diagnosis and management of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The guidelines appear in the October issue of the European Journal of Neurology.

14 Oct 2010

Neuro-Biotech introduces biomarker for progressive clinical investigation on Alzheimer's Disease

Neuro-Biotech Corporation introduces a Neuro-biomarker which is linked to a series of Neuro-Bio tests. This will permit to understand the science behind them and how they each will contribute to a progressive clinical investigation involving the input and output of the brain.

5 Oct 2010

Alpha-synuclein gene silencing effective for treating neurodegenerative disorders: Research

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, and collaborators at The Parkinson's Institute and the Mayo Clinic have published new research findings in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS). The new data show effective silencing of the alpha-synuclein gene with an RNAi therapeutic administered directly to the substantia nigra in the CNS of non-human primates.

24 Aug 2010

Human induced pluripotent stem cells help to treat Parkinson’s disease: Research

Researchers at the Buck Institute for Age Research have successfully used human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to treat rodents afflicted with Parkinson's Disease (PD). The research, which validates a scalable protocol that the same group had previously developed, can be used to manufacture the type of neurons needed to treat the disease and paves the way for the use of iPSC's in various biomedical applications. Results of the research, from the laboratory of Buck faculty Xianmin Zeng, Ph.D., are published August 16, 2010 in the on-line edition of the journal Stem Cells.

17 Aug 2010

TEMPO study recommends early administration of Azilect in PD patients

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck) today announced newly published long-term data on Azilect(rasagiline tablets) from the TEMPO study and its open-label extension. The findings confirm the long-term efficacy, safety and tolerability of Azilect® in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and further demonstrate the benefits obtained with early treatment initiation. The data was published in the June 2010 issue of the International Journal of Neuroscience.

6 Aug 2010

Placebo response in Parkinson's disease treatment varies with patient expectations

Individuals with Parkinson's disease were more likely to have a neurochemical response to a placebo medication if they were told they had higher odds of receiving an active drug, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

3 Aug 2010

Loss of key nerve cells cause Parkinson's disease: Research

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a molecular pathway responsible for the death of key nerve cells whose loss causes Parkinson's disease. This discovery not only may explain how a genetic mutation linked to Parkinson's causes the cells' death, but could also open the door to new therapeutic approaches for the malady.

29 Jul 2010

Dopamine-releasing cells essential for detected odor to be associated with negative experience: Study

It is common sense that it's worth learning what things and situations are harmful to us if we want to have a long and healthy life. For example, after getting a nasty sunburn, we learn our lesson, and apply sun cream before going sunbathing next time. The importance of such learned avoidance strategies is reflected by the fact that even fruit flies possess them.

27 Jul 2010

Brain neuron activity can signal initiation, termination of behavioural sequences: Study

Rui Costa, Principal Investigator of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, and Xin Jin, of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, describe in the latest issue of the journal Nature, that the activity of certain neurons in the brain can signal the initiation and termination of behavioural sequences we learn anew. Furthermore, they found that this brain activity is essential for learning and executing novel action sequences, many times compromised in patients suffering from disorders such as Parkinson's or Huntington's.

22 Jul 2010

Study findings may provide insight into extreme behaviors associated with rejection

The pain and anguish of rejection by a romantic partner may be the result of activity in parts of the brain associated with motivation, reward and addiction cravings, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.

7 Jul 2010

Rejection by romantic partner associated with brain's motivation, reward and addiction craving centers

Researchers have linked rejection by a romantic partner to brain activity associated with motivation, reward and addiction cravings, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology. Lucy Brown, Ph.D., clinical professor in the Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology and of neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, is the corresponding author of the study.

7 Jul 2010

Parkinson's Disease Foundation awards $1.2M for research programs

The Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF) is pleased to announce awards totaling $1.2 million for research projects designed to understand the cause(s) of and find a cure for Parkinson's disease (PD).

2 Jul 2010

Neurologix announces positive results from Phase 2 trial of NLX-P101 for advanced PD

Neurologix, Inc., today announced positive results in a Phase 2 trial of its investigational gene therapy for advanced Parkinson's disease, NLX-P101. Study participants who received NLX-P101 experienced statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in off-medication motor scores compared to control subjects who received sham surgery.

22 Jun 2010

Olfactory function tests could help in treating patient in early stages of PD

A fast, simple and non invasive test of the ability to smell may be an important tool to screen people who are likely to develop Parkinson's disease, in which motor symptoms only become evident at a later stage of the disease, a German scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Saturday).

14 Jun 2010

Enrollment and dosing in NeuroDerm's Phase I clinical trial of ND0611 completed

NeuroDerm, Ltd. announced today the successful enrollment and dosing in its Phase I clinical trial of ND0611. ND0611, a proprietary drug formula administered via a dermal patch, is designed to maintain continuous therapeutic levodopa concentrations for improving the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

1 Jun 2010

Study: Cell-based strategy for treating neurodegenerative diseases

UCSF scientists have used a novel cell-based strategy to treat motor symptoms in rats with a disease designed to mimic Parkinson's disease.

26 Mar 2010