Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Latest Parkinson's Disease News and Research

Evidence of a genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease

A Mayo Clinic-led international research collaboration - one of the largest studies of its kind - provides strong evidence that a genetic risk factor may account for 3 percent of the cause of Parkinson's disease.

8 Aug 2006

Prospective Huntington At Risk Observational Study

Doctors have completed the first step of a unique medical research study, evaluating 1,001 individuals at risk of developing Huntington's disease who do not know - nor do they want to know - whether they carry the genetic defect that causes the condition.

8 Aug 2006

Allergic rhinitis linked to the development of Parkinson's disease

Researchers from Mayo Clinic have discovered that allergic rhinitis is associated with the development of Parkinson's disease later in life. Findings will be published in the Aug. 8 issue of the journal Neurology.

7 Aug 2006

Nicotine shows promise as treatment against Parkinson's disease

New research suggests that nicotine treatment protects against the same type of brain damage that occurs in Parkinson's disease.

7 Aug 2006

Federally approved human embryonic stems inferior to those donated for research

Neural stem cells grown from one of the federally approved human embryonic stem cell lines proved to be inferior to neural stem cells derived from fetal tissue donated for research, a UCLA study has found.

4 Aug 2006

High blood pressure linked with a decline in walking ability in later life

Decline in lower limb function is common in older people, and worsening gait is associated with increased risk of dementia and death. However, factors contributing to gait difficulties in older persons are not well understood.

2 Aug 2006

New genetic model for Parkinson's disease

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden are homing in on mechanisms that may explain one set of causes for Parkinson's disease.

1 Aug 2006

Cheaper IVF deal on offer when women donate eggs for stem cell research

British women undergoing IVF procedures will soon be able to subsidise their treatment by donating some of their eggs to research.

30 Jul 2006

Promising therapy for Lou Gehrig's disease delivers antisense drug directly to nervous system

Researchers have designed and tested a molecular therapy in animals that they hope will be a major development in the fight to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease.

27 Jul 2006

Multi-tasking adversely affects brain's learning

Multi-tasking affects the brain's learning systems, and as a result, we do not learn as well when we are distracted, UCLA psychologists report this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

26 Jul 2006

Pig cell implants show potential for treatment of stroke, Huntington's disease

A review of accumulated evidence on the use of porcine brain choroid plexus (CP) cells published in the July issue of Xenotransplantation highlights that these cells have the potential to treat acute and chronic brain disease.

24 Jul 2006

New 'patch' drug therapy for Alzheimer's has fewer side effects

Alzheimer's, is the most common form of dementia and affects as many as 15 million people worldwide.

20 Jul 2006

Bush adopts the so-called moral high ground and chooses to ignore scientific advice

The American President George W. Bush has used his presidential veto for the first time to block further federal taxpayers money from being used for embryonic stem-cell research.

20 Jul 2006

New genetic clues to dementia with Lewy bodies

Researchers have found that genetic alterations originally identified in people suffering from a rare disease may also be an important risk factor for the second most common form of dementia among the elderly.

17 Jul 2006

Researchers find cause of frontotemporal dementia

Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) is the second major form of dementia.

17 Jul 2006

Apathy and depression, separate issues in Parkinson's disease

According to researchers in the U.S. people suffering from Parkinson's disease can be apathetic without being depressed, and apathy may be a core feature of the disease.

17 Jul 2006

Human hair follicles found to be a new source of adult stem cells

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have isolated a new source of adult stem cells that appear to have the potential to differentiate into several cell types.

12 Jul 2006

People with Parkinson disease can be apathetic without being depressed

People with Parkinson disease can be apathetic without being depressed, and apathy may be a core feature of the disease.

10 Jul 2006

New research promising for improving brain cell survival after brain injury

Scientists at Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute have found a protein in the brain that can save neurons from dying after experiencing traumatic brain injury from incidents such as stroke, car accidents and falls.

10 Jul 2006

Dopamine drug leads to new neurons and recovery of function in Parkinson's

In preliminary results, researchers have shown that a drug which mimics the effects of the nerve-signaling chemical dopamine causes new neurons to develop in the part of the brain where cells are lost in Parkinson's disease (PD).

5 Jul 2006