Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Latest Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Paclitaxel may benefit Alzheimer's and Parkinson's movement disorders

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals have announced that a preclinical study published in today's early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences highlights the positive effects of Paxceed on movement disorders commonly seen in diseases known as taupathies, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

27 Dec 2004

Researchers can now inexpensively program the chemical synthesis of entire genes on a single microchip

Devices the size of a pager now have greater capabilities than computers that once occupied an entire room. Similar advances are being made in the emerging field of synthetic biology at the University of Houston, now allowing researchers to inexpensively program the chemical synthesis of entire genes on a single microchip.

23 Dec 2004

Botox may be a possible treatment for sufferers of Tourette's syndrome

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston are using botulinum toxin type A (Botox) to treat the neurological disorder, which can cause involuntary motor and vocal tics.

21 Dec 2004

Theory that could help to cure diseases including cancer

An Open University science student has astonished the world of medicine with a theory that could help to cure diseases including cancer.

21 Dec 2004

Annual decline in cognitive functioning is similar in patients with Parkinson disease and dementia and patients with Alzheimer disease

The average annual decline in cognitive functioning is similar in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and dementia and patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), according to an article in the December issue of The Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

13 Dec 2004

Cell replacement therapy offers a novel and powerful medical technology

Cell replacement therapy offers a novel and powerful medical technology. A type of embryonic stem cell, called a neural crest stem cell, that persists into adulthood in hair follicles was recently discovered by Maya Sieber-Blum, Ph.D., of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milos Grim, MD Ph.D., of Charles University Prague, and their collaborators.

13 Dec 2004

Trimming fat overcomes one of the major obstacles to drug design

Biochemists at Ohio State University and their colleagues have overcome one of the major obstacles to drug design, by trimming some of the fat from a molecular sponge that scientists use to study proteins.

8 Dec 2004

Neurobiologists distinguish in unprecedented detail the patterns of brain activity

Using hairlike microelectrodes and computer analysis, neurobiologists at Duke University Medical Center have demonstrated that they can see the detailed instant-to-instant electrical "brainscape" of neural activity across a living brain.

8 Dec 2004

Episome vectors offer fresh angle to gene therapy

A European research team is seeking to overcome the early setbacks suffered by the promising new field of ‘gene therapy’ by developing a revolutionary delivery technique, known as ‘episome vectors’. This breakthrough could pave the way to treating hereditary diseases by injecting the body with healthy versions of damaged genes.

6 Dec 2004

A step closer to medical treatments for neural disorders

New insight into the role of a key regulator in cell division may help uncover new drug targets in the search for treatments for neural disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's disease.

29 Nov 2004

Rifampicin can prevent the formation of protein fibrils associated with Parkinson's disease

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have shown that rifampicin, an antibiotic used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis, can prevent the formation of protein fibrils associated with the death of brain cells in people with Parkinson's disease. The drug also dissolved existing fibrils in laboratory tests.

29 Nov 2004

Movies help explain how proteins gather into clusters called amyloid fibrils

To get a better look at how proteins gather into clusters called amyloid fibrils – which are associated with important human diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and the so-called prion diseases like Mad Cow – researchers at North Carolina State University decided to make movies.

23 Nov 2004

Family experience guides Alzheimer’s research

After watching his father struggle with and ultimately succumb to Alzheimer’s disease, ASU professor Michael Sierks shifted his research focus from starch hydrolyzing to neurodegenerative diseases.

18 Nov 2004

Researchers find mutations in a multifunctional protein cause Parkinsonism

A team of researchers at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. and colleagues in Canada and Germany have discovered a gene and six mutations of it that cause symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.

18 Nov 2004

New studies demonstrate efficacy of novel Lipoxin analog in laboratory models of Crohn's disease

Berlex announced today that new laboratory results demonstrate that its modified version of the naturally occurring lipoxin molecule exerts potent anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects in Crohn's disease in vivo models and may provide a promising new oral treatment.

9 Nov 2004

Dopamine in the brain plays a key role in how we make choices

Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder studying Parkinson's disease patients found strong evidence that dopamine in the brain plays a key role in how people implicitly learn to make choices that lead to good outcomes, while avoiding bad ones.

8 Nov 2004

Autophagy may even provide a clue to the mythical fountain of youth

The cells of higher organisms have an internal mechanism for chewing up and recycling parts of themselves, particularly in times of stress, like starvation and disease. But nobody is quite sure yet whether this recently discovered process protects cells, or causes damage.

5 Nov 2004

Body's 'internal marijuana': A new target for treatment of schizophrenia, Parkinson's?

“Endocannabinoids” is an impressive word that sounds like the name for a group of tribal warriors or an ancient people. Actually, it is the scientific term for beneficial molecules produced in the brain that act as “a sort of internal marijuana in our system

4 Nov 2004

alpha4 may prove to be useful target for smoking addiction therapies

Nicotine is responsible for more than four million smoking-related deaths each year. Yet people still smoke. Why? One reason is the stranglehold of addiction, started when nicotine enhances the release of a neurotransmitter called dopamine

4 Nov 2004

Sperm cells grown in laboratory culture

A team of researchers working with cells from mice has overcome a technical barrier and succeeded in growing sperm progenitor cells in laboratory culture.

4 Nov 2004