MONDAY, Sept. 12, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Researchers assume they’ve found out why Parkinson’s illness causes an individual’s limbs to turn out to be so stiff that at occasions they’ll really feel frozen in place.

Using a robotic chair outfitted with sensors, a analysis crew has linked the activation of leg muscle groups in Parkinson’s sufferers with a area of the mind referred to as the subthalamic nucleus.

This oval-shaped mind space is concerned in motion regulation, and information from the chair present that it controls the beginning, end and measurement of an individual’s leg actions, in response to analysis printed Sept. 7 in Science Translational Medicine .

“Our outcomes have helped uncover clear modifications in mind exercise associated to leg actions,” stated senior researcher Eduardo Martin Moraud, a junior principal investigator on the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

“We may verify that the identical modulations underlie the encoding of strolling states — for instance, modifications between standing, strolling, turning, avoiding obstacles or stair climbing — and strolling deficits corresponding to freezing of gait,” Moraud stated.

Parkinson’s illness is a degenerative dysfunction of the nervous system that primarily impacts the physique’s motor features.

Parkinson’s sufferers have hassle regulating the scale and velocity of their actions, in response to the Parkinson’s Foundation. They wrestle to start out or cease actions, hyperlink completely different actions to perform a process like standing up, or end one motion earlier than they start the subsequent.

The subthalamic nucleus is a part of the basal ganglia, a community of mind buildings recognized to manage a number of features of the physique’s motor system, stated Dr. James Liao, a neurologist with the Cleveland Clinic who reviewed the findings.

“This examine is the primary to convincingly show that the basal ganglia management the vigor of leg actions,” Liao stated. “The significance is that this hyperlinks dysfunction of the basal ganglia to the shuffling gait deficit of Parkinson’s illness.”

To analysis Parkinson’s impact on strolling, researchers constructed a robotic chair wherein an individual may both voluntarily lengthen their leg from the knee or the chair may do it for them.

Researchers recruited 18 Parkinson’s sufferers with extreme motor fluctuations and issues with their strolling gait and their steadiness. Each affected person was implanted with electrodes that would monitor electrical alerts from their subthalamic nucleus and likewise present deep mind stimulation to that mind area.

Impulses coming from the subthalamic nucleus had been tracked as sufferers used the chair and later as they stood and walked.

“The truth that every one these strolling features are encoded in that area of the mind makes us consider that it contributes to strolling operate and dysfunction, thereby making it an fascinating area for therapies and/or for predicting issues earlier than they come up,” Moraud stated. “We may leverage that understanding to design real-time decoding algorithms that may predict these strolling features in real-time, utilizing mind alerts solely.”

In truth, the researchers did create a number of laptop algorithms that distinguished the mind alerts from a daily stride from those who happen in sufferers with an impaired gait. The crew additionally may establish freezing episodes in sufferers as they carried out quick strolling checks.

“The authors demonstrated that intervals of gait freezing will be predicted from recorded neural exercise,” Liao stated. “Accurate predictions will permit algorithms to be developed to vary [deep brain stimulation] patterns in response to intervals of gait freezing, shortening and even eliminating freezing episodes utterly.”

Moraud stated these findings may assist inform future applied sciences geared toward enhancing the mobility of Parkinson’s sufferers.

“There are huge hopes that the subsequent era of deep mind stimulation therapies, which can function in closed loop — that means that they are going to ship electrical stimulation in a sensible and exact method, primarily based on suggestions of what every sufferers wants — might assist higher alleviate gait and steadiness deficits,” Moraud stated.

“However, closed-loop protocols are contingent on alerts that may assist management the supply of stimulation in real-time. Our outcomes open such potentialities,” he added.

Dr. Michael Okun, nationwide medical adviser of the Parkinson’s Foundation, agreed.

“Understanding the mind networks underpinning strolling in Parkinson’s illness might be necessary to the long run growth of therapeutics,” Okun stated. “The key query for this analysis crew is whether or not the data they’ve gathered is sufficient to drive a neuroprosthetic system to enhance Parkinson’s strolling means.”

More data

The Parkinson’s Foundation has extra about strolling and motion difficulties related to Parkinson’s.

SOURCES: Eduardo Martin Moraud, PhD, junior principal investigator, University of Lausanne, Switzerland; James Liao, MD, neurologist, Cleveland Clinic; Michael Okun, MD, nationwide medical adviser, Parkinson’s Foundation, New York City; Science Translational Medicine, Sept. 7, 2022

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WEDNESDAY, June 8, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Nightmares may be unsettling for anybody, however new analysis from Britain means that dangerous desires could sign the beginning of Parkinson’s illness in some older adults.

“Although it may be actually useful to diagnose Parkinson’s illness early, there are only a few threat indicators and plenty of of those require costly hospital assessments or are quite common and nonspecific, corresponding to diabetes,” defined research creator Abidemi Otaiku, from the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Human Brain Health.

“While we have to perform additional analysis on this space, figuring out the importance of dangerous desires and nightmares might point out that people who expertise adjustments to their desires in older age — with none apparent set off — ought to search medical recommendation,” Otaiku mentioned in a college information launch.

In the research, Otaiku’s workforce analyzed knowledge from greater than 3,800 older males within the United States who took half in a 12-year research. At the beginning of that research, the lads offered a variety of data, together with particulars about their sleep.

There have been 91 instances of Parkinson’s illness recognized among the many males in the course of the research interval. Those who reported frequent dangerous desires/nightmares at first of the research have been two instances extra more likely to develop Parkinson’s than these with out disturbing desires.

Most of the Parkinson’s diagnoses have been made within the first 5 years of the research, and males with nightmares throughout this era had a 3 times larger threat of Parkinson’s.

The findings recommend that dangerous desires/nightmares could happen in older adults just a few years earlier than they develop typical signs of Parkinson’s corresponding to tremors, stiffness and sluggish motion, in keeping with the authors.

The research was printed June 7 within the journal eClinicalMedicine.

While earlier research have discovered that folks with Parkinson’s have extra dangerous desires/nightmares than these with out the illness, utilizing this as a threat indicator for Parkinson’s had not beforehand been thought-about by specialists.

The authors mentioned their research additionally reveals that desires can reveal essential details about mind construction and performance, and will become a big space of neuroscience analysis.

They’re contemplating confirming these findings in bigger and extra numerous teams of individuals, and likewise inspecting doable connections between desires and different neurodegenerative ailments corresponding to Alzheimer’s.

More info

For extra on Parkinson’s illness, see the Parkinson’s Foundation.

SOURCE: University of Birmingham, information launch, June 7, 2022

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It’s commonplace for TV to fast-track medical innovation. Take the present season of Grey’s Anatomy, which featured a significant storyline a couple of “cure” for Parkinson’s illness. The drama collection adopted a staff of researchers and docs as they used a groundbreaking surgical process utilizing skin-derived stem cells.

In actual life, regardless of many years of analysis and large positive aspects in technical information round stem cell therapies for Parkinson’s illness, these therapies stay out of attain for most individuals with the illness. Parkinson’s is a mind dysfunction that worsens over time and causes the demise of sure nerve cells that usually produce dopamine, which helps coordinate muscle motion. The mostly used surgical therapy for Parkinson’s is deep mind stimulation, which delivers electrical pulses to mind areas affecting motor signs, comparable to tremors and rigidity.

Still, given the stakes of this continual progressive neurological illness dealing with about 1 million Americans, it’s price unpacking simply how far-fetched the Hollywood depiction is – or isn’t.

A TV-Ready Stem Cell Breakthrough

On the present, docs take stem cells from a pores and skin biopsy of a personality with Parkinson’s illness and, “through a complex process,” remodel these cells into dopamine-producing cells. People with Parkinson’s usually have low dopamine ranges within the putamen, part of the mind concerned in motion. By injecting new dopamine-producing cells into the character’s forebrain, the place the putamen is discovered, the docs goal to spice up dopamine ranges.

The process kicks off with a CT scan, which provides the surgical staff pictures of what’s described as “an interactive 3D roadmap” of the character’s mind. After a number of extra fast steps – together with drilling of burr holes to stop strain from build up within the mind – a robotic arm brings a hole needle into place. A researcher then removes the stem cells from a cooler and examines them underneath a microscope to verify that sufficient cells are alive. Finally, the cells are injected into the character’s forebrain, beginning with one facet after which transferring to the opposite.

Much of what’s depicted on the present is sensible – if simplified and futuristic – in accordance with Willard Kasoff, MD, an affiliate professor of neurosurgery on the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and director of stereotactic and useful neurosurgery at Temple University Hospital.

“It’s not science fiction, but it’s a future show,” he says.

The Reality of Stem Cell Treatments for Parkinson’s Disease

There have been a number of thrilling stem cell improvements concentrating on Parkinson’s lately that, on the floor, are paying homage to Grey’s Anatomy’s televised “cure.”

In 2017 and 2018, as an example, docs reprogrammed pores and skin cells taken from an individual with Parkinson’s to create “replacement dopamine neurons,” which got implanted into the person’s brain. More recently, a clinical trial involved injecting stem cells into the brains of people with Parkinson’s in order to restore their dopamine levels, complete with a GPS-like brain scan showing neurosurgeons where to inject the cells. Upcoming clinical trials will also use Parkinson’s patients’ skin cells to produce replacement dopamine neurons for transplantation.

But such treatments won’t necessarily be widely available anytime soon, according to Kasoff. “Cell transplantation is incredibly difficult and complicated,” he says. “It’s been worked on for decades, and it’s still early, early research trials. So even that kind of therapy is likely years and years away.”

Some of the therapies depend on genetic engineering to transform stem cells into neural progenitor cells, which might turn into numerous cell varieties discovered within the mind – a course of often called differentiating. Neurosurgeons also can direct how neural progenitor cells change, comparable to guiding them to develop into dopamine neurons. The hope is that after these cells are transplanted into the mind, they’ll “figure out what to do, or be told what to do by the surrounding cells,” says Kasoff.

A Future Cure?

Even if the trials succeed, they could not characterize a treatment. Because the therapies are directed on the putamen and the substantia nigra (an space the place neuron loss can have an effect on dopamine ranges), they solely tackle motor signs. Parkinson’s illness additionally impacts considering abilities, steadiness, and different features all through the physique. Cognitive decline can result in dementia and demise.

“The idea that you can cure Parkinson’s by putting cells in the substantia nigra or the putamen is probably not true,” Kasoff says.

Also, Parkinson’s is usually considered a illness of 1 cell sort: the dopaminergic cells within the substantia nigra. But in actuality, Kasoff explains, it’s doubtless a illness with “thousands of cell types,” which makes any potential stem cell-derived treatment extraordinarily advanced. Type 1 diabetes, alternatively, is a illness of just one cell sort, and new therapies utilizing insulin-producing cells derived from stem cells may quantity to a treatment.

As for Parkinson’s, says Kasoff, “it may be that the next stem cell trial hits the jackpot, and then we’ll be on to the next step.” That may imply determining the place to transplant stem cells for the cognitive and balance-related signs of the illness, as an example.

Ultimately, he says, “the hope is that what happens on the show is exactly what will happen at some point in the future.”

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FRIDAY, Jan. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Two rheumatoid arthritis medicine present potential for decreasing the danger of Parkinson’s illness, new analysis exhibits.

Some earlier research have discovered that folks with rheumatoid arthritis have a decrease threat of Parkinson’s, and it was advised {that a} class of rheumatoid arthritis medicine referred to as disease-modifying antirheumatic medicine (DMARDs) could play a job in that decreased threat.

To be taught extra, researchers analyzed information from hundreds of sufferers in Finland.

The use of most DMARDs — together with methotrexate, sulfasalazine, gold preparations or immunosuppressants — no less than three years earlier than Parkinson’s illness prognosis was not related to the danger of the illness in these with rheumatoid arthritis, in keeping with the research revealed on-line Jan. 21 within the journal Neurology.

However, the researchers did discover that rheumatoid arthritis sufferers who took the DMARDs chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine had a 26% decrease threat of Parkinson’s illness.

Both of those medicine have an effect on the immune system and have been proven to have anti-Parkinson’s potential in animal research, in keeping with the researchers. But outcomes of animal research are sometimes completely different from these in people.

The new research was led by Anne Paakinaho of the School of Pharmacy on the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio.

Her group referred to as for additional investigation of the medicine’ attainable protecting results towards Parkinson’s.

The research — funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research — managed for size of time with rheumatoid arthritis, age, intercourse and different well being situations, reminiscent of coronary heart illness and diabetes.

The threat elements for Parkinson’s illness are unclear, the research authors famous in a journal information launch.

Previous research have linked rheumatoid arthritis with Parkinson’s. But they’ve yielded conflicting findings, with rheumatoid arthritis being related to both a decrease or larger threat of Parkinson’s.

More data

The Parkinson’s Foundation has extra on Parkinson’s illness.

SOURCE: University of Eastern Finland, information launch, Jan. 24, 2022

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THURSDAY, Jan. 27, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Red wine could also be a responsible pleasure, however new analysis exhibits it may additionally be a robust weapon in opposition to the ravages of Parkinson’s illness.

Why? The antioxidants in purple wine, and fruit similar to berries for that matter, may sluggish development of the motion dysfunction, a brand new examine suggests.

According to researchers, folks with Parkinson’s who eat three or extra servings per week of meals excessive in antioxidants referred to as flavonoids could cut back their odds of dying early in contrast with individuals who don’t eat as many flavonoid-rich meals.

“Flavonoids are naturally occurring, plant-based dietary parts, wealthy in fruit and greens. They give varied colours in these vegetation,” stated senior researcher Dr. Xiang Gao. He is director of the dietary epidemiology lab at Pennsylvania State University, in University Park.

“Adapting a wholesome dietary sample, excessive in colourful fruits and veggies, even after Parkinson analysis, might sluggish illness development and enhance survival price,” he added.

Still, the examine cannot show that flavonoids extended the lives of Parkinson’s sufferers, solely that there could also be an affiliation, Gao stated.

“In our earlier examine, printed in Neurology in 2012, we discovered that flavonoids might forestall in opposition to Parkinson threat sooner or later amongst those that didn’t have Parkinson at first of follow-up,” Gao stated. “The present examine gives additional proof relating to neuro-protective results of fruit and greens.”

Flavonoids present in some fruits, teas and purple wine can rapidly cross the blood-brain barrier and ease oxidative stress, irritation and atherosclerosis within the mind, which could cut back the influence of Parkinson’s, the researchers stated.

For the examine, Gao and his colleagues collected knowledge on greater than 1,200 folks with Parkinson’s illness, common age 72, who had the situation for a median of 33 years. Every 4 years, the sufferers answered questions on their weight loss program. Specifically, they have been requested how typically they consumed tea, apples, berries, oranges and orange juice.

During the examine, 75% of the sufferers died. Of these, 513 died from Parkinson’s, 112 died from cardiovascular illnesses and 69 from cancers.

Those whose weight loss program included essentially the most flavonoids had a 70% larger probability of survival in contrast with folks whose weight loss program included the least quantity of flavonoids, the researchers discovered.

The highest consumption of flavonoids was about 673 milligrams (mg) a day and the bottom was about 134 mg a day. For reference, strawberries have about 180 mg of flavonoids per 100-gram serving, and apples have about 113.

Eating extra flavonoid-rich meals earlier than growing Parkinson’s was tied to a decrease threat of dying amongst males, however not ladies, Gao famous. But after Parkinson’s was recognized, consuming extra flavonoids was linked with higher survival charges for each genders, he famous.

As for which meals are finest, the investigators discovered that those that consumed anthocyanins, present in purple wine and berries, had on common a 66% higher survival price than those that consumed the bottom quantity of anthocyanins.

For the flavonoid flavan-3-ols, present in apples, tea and wine, those that consumed essentially the most had a 69% higher survival price than those that consumed the least.

Although how flavonoids act to enhance Parkinson’s survival is not clear, including berries, apples, oranges and tea to the weight loss program could also be a straightforward and low-risk means to enhance outcomes, Gao stated. He does not, nonetheless, advise individuals who do not drink alcohol to begin, however those that do may wish to swap to purple wine, he advised.

The report was printed on-line Jan. 26 within the journal Neurology.

Dr. Michael Okun, nationwide medical advisor for the Parkinson’s Foundation and director of the University of Florida’s Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases in Gainesville, stated that instantly including flavonoids to your weight loss program is probably not the magic trick to an extended life for Parkinson’s sufferers.

“The nature of the information from this examine shouldn’t be interpreted as folks with Parkinson’s will reside longer in the event that they instantly change their weight loss program to incorporate flavonoids,” he stated. “For instance, mixing wine and Parkinson’s just isn’t all the time protected, as it may result in accidents, normally associated to falling.”

That doesn’t suggest that flavonoids aren’t good for Parkinson’s sufferers and will even have particular advantages for folks with the illness.

“Overall, flavonoids are nice on your well being, and this examine provides to collective literature supporting a possible function in Parkinson’s illness,” Okun stated.

More data

For extra on Parkinson’s illness, head to the Parkinson’s Foundation.

SOURCES: Xiang Gao, MD, PhD, professor, and director, dietary epidemiology lab, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.; Michael Okun, MD, nationwide medical advisor, Parkinson’s Foundation, director, University of Florida’s Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, Gainesville, Fla.; Neurology, Jan. 26, 2022, on-line

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THURSDAY, Oct. 28, 2021 (HealthDay News) — The variety of Americans who’re dying from Parkinson’s illness has jumped by 63% previously twenty years, new analysis exhibits.

The recent evaluation additionally revealed that males face double the danger of dying from the progressive and incurable illness than girls. A notably greater demise charge was additionally seen amongst white folks, as in contrast with friends of different racial/ethnic backgrounds.

“The message is easy,” mentioned research creator Dr. Wei Bao. “This research confirmed that an growing variety of folks died from Parkinson’s illness in the course of the previous 20 years, and this can’t be merely defined by inhabitants getting older.”

Bao is an affiliate professor within the division of epidemiology on the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health, in Iowa City. He and his colleagues printed their findings on-line Oct. 27 within the journal Neurology.

According to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Parkinson’s impacts roughly 1 million Americans and greater than 6 million folks all over the world.

To get a deal with on developments amongst Parkinson’s sufferers, Bao and his colleagues analyzed information collected by the U.S. National Vital Statistics System.

The group discovered that almost 480,000 Americans died of Parkinson’s between 1999 and 2019.

During that point, the danger of dying from Parkinson’s rose 12 months after 12 months by a median of two.4%, with a major elevated danger seen amongst each women and men of all ages and ethnicities, and throughout each city and rural locales, and in each state within the nation.

That regular rise translated into practically 9 out of each 100,000 Americans succumbing to Parkinson’s by 2019. That determine is notably up from just a little greater than 5 Parkinson’s deaths for each 100,000 Americans simply 20 years earlier.

While danger went up throughout the board, males seemed to be rather more susceptible than girls, the findings confirmed.

By 2019, the demise charge amongst males was pegged at double that of girls. One doable cause why: greater ranges of estrogen in girls could finally bolster motor management, the investigators mentioned, and defend girls from creating Parkinson’s.

Death charges had been additionally cited as being highest amongst white sufferers (9.7 per 100,000 folks), adopted by Hispanics (6.5 per 100,000) and Black folks (4.7 per 100,000). The group cautioned, nevertheless, that a few of that differential may mirror greater analysis charges amongst whites attributable to higher entry to neurology care.

As to what is perhaps driving up demise charges general, the research authors confused that their analysis didn’t got down to establish trigger, with Bao acknowledging that “the reason being not clear at current and warrants additional investigation.”

But the group theorized quite a lot of prospects. On the one hand, the next demise charge amongst Parkinson’s sufferers could also be at the least partially linked to a rising danger for creating Parkinson’s within the first place. And investigators pointed to quite a lot of causes Parkinson’s could also be changing into extra widespread, together with worsening environmental components resembling elevated exposures to pesticides, heavy metals, air air pollution and herbicides.

Improved accuracy on exact reason for demise (as famous on demise certificates) may have performed a task, the investigators added.

Still, James Beck, chief scientific officer for the Parkinson’s Foundation, mentioned the findings “will not be stunning.”

The basis has additionally noticed that the variety of folks with Parkinson’s has risen, and “will proceed to rise because the inhabitants ages, so a rise in mortality charges could be anticipated,” he famous.

Beck mentioned that improved diagnostics is what accounts for a lot of the rising demise charges, as docs grow to be more proficient at recognizing Parkinson’s, “which might result in greater charges of figuring out PD [Parkinson’s disease] as a reason for demise.”

Regardless, Dr. Rachel Dolhun, senior vp of medical communications on the Michael J. Fox Foundation, steered that whereas “extra information is required to higher perceive these developments,” Parkinson’s sufferers shouldn’t be discouraged by the numbers.

“If you are an individual or household dwelling with PD, I perceive how a headline like this might be scary,” she mentioned. “But the underside line is that a lot of these research are serving to us direct extra sources and analysis in order that we will study extra in regards to the illness and its impression on the neighborhood, develop higher remedies and a treatment and, finally, stop Parkinson’s.”

Meanwhile, “I usually inform folks — particularly these newly identified — that your Parkinson’s is your Parkinson’s.Your signs, how they alter over time, and the way they impression your life are all distinctive to you,” Dolhun added. “The individualized nature of the illness could make it tough to foretell development and signs in anybody individual.”