Gene mutation discovery reveals new therapeutic target for Parkinson’s disease

Northwestern Medicine scientists have uncovered a new mechanism by which mutations in a gene parkin contribute to familial forms of Parkinson’s disease. The mutations result in a breakdown of contacts between two key workers in the cell – lysosomes and mitochondria. As reported in a recent study, the scientists' discovery opens a new avenue for Parkinson’s therapeutics. Click here to learn more.

Could brain age be used to measure disease stratification in Huntington's disease?

Using structural MRIs and clinical data from prior longitudinal studies, researchers are exploring the potential use of brain-age measures of Huntington's disease (HD) patients to stratify disease progression states. Baseline brain age, chronological age, and brain-PAD were analyzed from 953 participants. Despite recent advances in defining broad stages of disease progression, more accurate stratification methods are necessary to classify HD patients according to disease progression. Click here to learn more.

Stanford Engineering: The future of movement disorders (podcast)

Click here to hear about the future of movement disorders in this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

Neurologist, neurophysiologist and movement disorders specialist Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart explains how new approaches, such as closed-loop deep-brain stimulation and digital health technologies that chart subtle changes in movement, are reshaping the field.

Blood pressure medications don’t affect Parkinson’s progression

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is common among people with Parkinson’s. By some estimates, more than half of patients have hypertension. 

Medications that lower blood pressure, however, don’t appear to influence the progression of the disease, according to a new study published in Heliyon.

“There is no evidence that antihypertensive drugs can delay PD progression within [two] years,” said scientists, who noted their study was limited to a relatively small number of patients with a fairly short follow-up time. More research to compare the effects of different types of medicines used for blood pressure is also needed. Click here to learn more.

Sleep problems linked to decline in attentional abilities in those with essential tremor

Individuals with essential tremor may have an increased risk of decline in attentional abilities when having less habitual sleep efficiency, according to Angeliki Tsapanou, PhD, MSc, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “Although there is extended literature regarding sleep problems and cognition in the general population, scarce is the knowledge regarding this association on people with essential tremor.

“Results of our large longitudinal study indicated that cognitively healthy people with essential tremor who have longer self-reported sleep latency are at higher risk of developing executive function decline,” Tsapanou said. Click here to learn more.