Updated exercise guidelines for those with Parkinson’s disease released by The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) now include Nordic pole walking as a suggested aerobic activity to help mitigate symptoms and improve everyday life. The exercise, a Finnish-derived low-impact total body walk, is also known as urban poling, which is also the name of the Toronto-based company that distributes the “Activator Poles” that can be used with such walks. According to Urban Poling, using the poles can improve gait, increase the user’s base of support, and provide extra stability to reduce the risk of a ..read more

The estate of a longtime supporter of the Norton Neuroscience Institute at Norton Healthcare has gifted the center $20 million to help expand programming and research in Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. The donation from the estate of Elizabeth Pahk Cressman, MD, PhD, will aid the Louisville, Kentucky-based institute’s Just Imagine growth campaign, which seeks to “further transform and improve complex neurological care” to meet a burgeoning demand, according to a Norton Healthcare press release. The gift will help ensure better access to medical expertise and expand inno ..read more

Three biobehavioral scientists at Teachers College (TC), Columbia University are working on separate collaborative efforts in exercise, speech, and swallowing among Parkinson’s patients to potentially improve quality of life for the more than 10 million people estimated globally to be living with the progressive neurodegenerative disease. In honor of this year’s Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month, observed each April, the New York-based graduate school of education, health, and psychology is highlighting the work of three of its researchers: Gemma Moya-Galé, PhD, Michelle Troche, PhD, and Lo ..read more

Cycling indoors on a stationary bicycle for two may improve the health and well-being of people with Parkinson’s disease and their care partners, a preliminary small study at the University of South Carolina suggests. The results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, which took place April 13-18, in Denver and online, in a poster titled “Functional and Cognitive Benefits of a Community Tandem Cycling Exercise Intervention on Patients with Parkinson’s Disease and their Care Partners.” “Our study found that a unique cycling program that pairs people with Par ..read more

ND0612, a formation of levodopa/carbidopa administered continuously by an under-the-skin pump, led to better symptom control for people with advanced Parkinson’s disease in a Phase 3 trial, and the therapy’s efficacy and safety were consistent irrespective of patient factors like age, weight, and medication dosage. That’s according to data discussed at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2024 Annual Meeting, held April 13-18 in Colorado and online. Alberto Espay, MD, a study investigator and consultant to ND0612’s developer NeuroDerm (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp.), prese ..read more

Treatment with prasinezumab — an experimental therapy designed to stop toxic alpha-synuclein protein clumps from spreading through the brain — seems to slow the progression of motor symptoms in people with Parkinson’s disease. That’s according to the results of a new analysis that compared the findings of a long-term clinical trial of prasinezumab with data from a real-world observational study. Patrik Brundin, MD, PhD, therapeutic area leader for movement disorders at Roche, which is co-developing the therapy with Prothena Biosciences, presented the analysis’ findings at this year’s American ..read more

TreeFrog Therapeutics’ investigational cell therapy restored motor function in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease, according to a recent presentation. The therapy, designed to replace the dopamine-producing nerve cells lost in Parkinson’s, involves transplanting a three-dimensional “microtissue” that contains the cells directly into the brain. Kevin Alessandri, PhD, TreeFrog’s co-founder and chief technology officer, presented the preclinical findings in the poster “Off-the-shelf bioreactor produced, iPSC-derived neural microtissues containing dopaminergic neurons innervate the striatum and n ..read more

The Syn-One test, which uses a skin biopsy to look for atypical clumps of the protein alpha-synuclein, may help both in confirming a diagnosis and guiding treatment decisions for people being evaluated for Parkinson’s disease, new data show. “Skin biopsies are minimally invasive and, our study showed, very effective in aiding the diagnosis of parkinsonian disorders,” Jonathan Ross Isaacson, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Massachusetts, said during a talk at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2024 Annual Meeting, held April 13-18, in Colorado and online. Isaacson’s presen ..read more

AB-1005, an experimental gene therapy administered directly into the brain, helped ease motor symptoms in patients with moderate Parkinson’s disease, whereas it appeared to stabilize disease progression for those with mild disease in a small Phase 1 clinical trial. No serious safety issues were reported for the 11 enrolled participants. Top-line findings from the study were announced earlier this year by the therapy’s developer AskBio (a subsidiary of Bayer). The results were presented in detail at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2024 Annual Meeting, held April 13-18, in Denver, Color ..read more

Caring for my father as he battled Parkinson’s disease was fraught with challenges, but nothing prepared me for the devastating blow of losing him since my last column. In the wake of his passing, I found myself thrust into a world of unfathomable sorrow. His collapse a few days earlier and subsequent admission to a hospital sent shock waves through my soul, leaving me reeling with a sense of profound helplessness. As I stood by his bedside, watching him as he slowly shut down, my heart shattered into pieces. In those agonizing moments, I felt the weight of a lifetime of his love and sacrific ..read more