The goal in treating patients with gout is to reduce acute attacks by lowering serum urate levels, which are usually high in this disease. At the same time, high serum urate levels have been shown to lower the risk of developing Parkinson's disease (PD).

Recently, the University of Missouri Department of Psychological Sciences introduced an addition to their field of research with the opening of the Brain Imaging Center (BIC). The BIC will allow MU researchers to conduct behavioral research on diseases that can have tremendous impact, including Parkinson's disease, autism, schizophrenia and other neurocognitive disorders using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology.

Individuals with Parkinson's disease appear more likely to be vitamin D deficient than healthy adults of the same age or patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

A majority of Parkinson's disease patients had insufficient levels of vitamin D in a new study from Emory University School of Medicine.

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have determined the structure of an adenosine receptor that plays a critical role in a number of important physiological processes including pain, breathing, and heart function.

What does the genetics of blood cells have to do with brain cells related to Parkinson's disease? From an unusual collaboration of neurologists and a pharmacologist comes the surprising answer: Genetic mechanisms at play in blood cells also control a gene and protein that cause Parkinson's disease.

A typical symptom of Parkinson's disease is tremor in patients. A group of scientists, including Professor Peter Tass from Forschungszentrum Jülich have succeeded in demonstrating the mechanisms which cause the so-called tremor: neuron clusters in the depths of the brain drive the tremor.

Old muscle got a shot of youthful vigor in a stem cell experiment by bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, setting the path for research on new treatments for age-related degenerative conditions such as muscle atrophy or Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Research released today provides evidence that a cure for Parkinson's disease could lie just inside the nose of patients themselves.

The current issue of CELL TRANSPLANTATION (Vol. 17:4) features a number of publications by researchers seeking new ways to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD), a neurological disease characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor and slowed physical movements related to insufficient levels of dopamine (DA) in the basal ganglia of the brain, by using primate models to examine the potential therapy role of transplanted cells.

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the brain affecting movement, speech, mood, behavior, thinking and sensation for which there is no known cause or cure.

Higher blood levels of the compound urate, a salt derived from uric acid that is associated with gout, may be associated with a slower progression of Parkinson’s disease, according to an article posted online today that will appear in the June 2008 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.