Thursday, April 18, 2024

New drug may slow rapid progression of Parkinson's disease

Prasinezumab, a monoclonal antibody, has shown to reduce signs of motor deterioration in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) who have rapidly progressing disease, as reported in an exploratory analysis of data from a large phase 2 clinical trial. Researchers found that prasinezumab treatment reduced motor symptom worsening in all rapidly progressing subpopulations after 52 weeks compared with those of patients treated with a placebo. 

Prasinezumab is the first experimental therapeutic monoclonal antibody designed to bind aggregated alpha-synuclein, allowing it to be degraded. Aggregation of alpha-synuclein in the brain is a hallmark of PD, and several preclinical studies have suggested that this pathology is a key driver of disease progression. Click here to learn more. 

Report: treatment of cervical dystonia through periauricular incision

Cervical dystonia (CD) is the most common form of focal dystonia. Traditional surgical treatment options for CD include deep brain stimulation (DBS), selective peripheral denervation, and myotomy. A group of researchers from several U.S. universities report on an anterior approach to CD treatment that leverages a periauricular incision for selective peripheral nerve denervation, along with the strategic application of Sunderland third-degree nerve injury.

This technique represents another surgical option for CD, one particularly beneficial for patients with diffuse muscle involvement or involvement of muscles necessary for shoulder mobility and head stability. The promising results demonstrated in their case study, including significant symptom improvement and preserved muscle function, underscore the potential of this approach to improve the quality of life of patients with CD. Click here to learn more.

Subcutaneous infusion of levodopa-carbidopa beneficial for Parkinson's disease

Subcutaneous infusion of ND0612 (a levodopa-carbidopa solution) increases on time without troublesome dyskinesia among patients with Parkinson disease (PD), according to a study published in The Lancet Neurology. “ND0612 infusion could offer an efficacious and safe individualized infusion approach to managing motor fluctuations in people with PD before...surgery-associated interventions,” the authors write.

Researchers examined the safety and efficacy of a continuous 24-hour-a-day subcutaneous infusion of ND0612 compared with oral immediate-release levodopa-carbidopa for the treatment of motor fluctuations in PD. They found that compared with oral levodopa-carbidopa, treatment with subcutaneous ND0612 provided an additional 1.72 hours of on time without troublesome dyskinesia. Click here to learn more. 

New genetic database may help in better understanding Huntington’s

Scientists at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) have mapped onto a genetic database nearly a million tandem repeat (TR) expansions — head-to-tail copies of short DNA sequences — to better understand how they’re linked to several human diseases, including Huntington’s.

The genetic database, called TR-gnomAD, was built based on information from 338,963 people of European, African, Hispanic, Asian, and other descent. The goal, according to researchers, is to learn more about how common TR expansions are within each ancestry and to determine which may be disease-causing. This work may provide critical insights into the prevalence of ancestry-specific TR disorders, including Huntington’s. Click here to learn more. 

Parkinson's disease alters emotion-related bodily sensations

Researchers at the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital in Finland have shown that bodily sensations related to emotions are altered by Parkinson's disease (PD). People with PD were found to have significant differences in all bodily sensations related to basic emotions when compared with control subjects. The differences were most pronounced in the bodily sensations of anger, which in healthy people are focused in the chest area. Click here to learn more.