Parkinson's Disease INSIGHTS

Parkinson's Disease (PD) affects over 10 million people worldwide and is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder1,2. Key research areas include genetics studies of patients with PD, target optimization for new treatments, the biology of cellular signaling pathways (α-synuclein, LRRK2, GBA, PRKN/PINK1, inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction), biomarkers for PD onset and progression, and new imaging techniques to measure brain changes and activity. The Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative...  Read More

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease (after Alzheimer's disease) and the most common movement disorder. The worldwide incidence of PD has more than doubled since 1990 to an estimated 6.1 million PD patients globally in 20161. In the United States in 2017, the estimated total economic burden of PD was $51.9 billion (The Lewin Group, Inc., Final Report commissioned by and submitted to...  Read More

Parkinson's disease (PD) affects 1 million people in the U.S. annually and there is no known cure. Can connections between the gut microbiome, the appendix, and the pathology of PD provide fresh therapeutic options? State of Parkinson's Disease Treatment Primary treatments and research areas for PD historically revolved around drugs that increase the levels of dopamine in the synaptic space (Levodopa, Lodosyn, Duopa), medications that act as...  Read More

No single Parkinson's Disease (PD) model fully reproduces the complexity of the disease in humans. Developing an assortment of PD models has been essential for furthering our understanding of, and the development of potential treatments for, the disease. Adding to the arsenal of PD rodent models, in conjunction with The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) for Parkinson's Research, a mouse model carrying targeted replacement human LRRK2 G2019S...  Read More

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), established in 2000, is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease (PD) by supporting research agendas toward development of improved therapies for Parkinson's disease patients. Unlike many private research funding institutions that rely on external scientific advisors and boards for how to allocate donor-raised research dollars, the MJFF has an in-house team of trained scientists and project managers that oversee...  Read More

In a recent Cell publication, a team led by Timothy Sampson and Sarkis Mazmanian of Caltech showed that gut microbiota can promote inflammation of neurons and motor deficits in a human α-synuclein mouse model of Parkinson's disease. Connecting Parkinson's Disease and the Microbiome Emerging data suggest bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain in anxiety, depression, nociception, and autism spectrum disorder1,5,6. Much has been postulated over...  Read More