Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that the statin, simvastatin, reduces the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease by almost 50 percent. This is the first study to suggest that statins might reduce the incidence of Parkinson’s disease. These findings, will be published in the July online open access journal BioMed Central (BMC) Medicine.

A University of South Florida neuroscientist reports that the cutting-edge research study of human stem cells in primates with Parkinson’s disease is compelling on several fronts – particularly how the transplanted cells did their job of easing disease symptoms.

A University of South Florida neuroscientist reports that the cutting-edge research study of human stem cells in primates with Parkinson’s disease is compelling on several fronts – particularly how the transplanted cells did their job of easing disease symptoms.

While depression appears to be common in early Parkinson’s disease (PD), it is often not treated or diagnosed, according to newly released research. A contingent of researchers from across North America found that just over 27 per cent of PD subjects screened positive for depression, while 40 per cent of subjects’ depression went untreated.

The disease that causes tremors, rigidity and slowed movements in a million Americans also targets another brain network that regulates cognitive thought and the ability to carry out everyday tasks.

A pooled analysis of data from previous studies suggests that cigarette smoking appears to be associated with a reduced risk for developing Parkinson’s disease, with long-term and current smokers at the lowest risk, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Scientists have discovered that adult neural stem cells, which exist in the brain throughout life, are not a single, homogeneous group. Instead, they are a diverse group of cells, each capable of giving rise to specific types of neurons.

In the vast majority of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, the disorder arises not because of a genetic defect, but because some external insult triggers the death of dopamine-producing neurons. Now, researchers have reported progress in understanding the mechanism underlying that death, which they say suggests a new treatment pathway.

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative brain disease characterized by the loss of dopamine neurons in the midbrain-area called Substantia Nigra. The research group led by professor Mart Saarma, Director of the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, has discovered a novel neurotrophic factor CDNF (Conserved Dopamine Neurotrophic Factor).

Exposure to iron during the first weeks of life in combination with exposure later in life to a common herbicide may contribute to the subsequent degeneration of brain cells associated with the onset of Parkinson’s disease (PD), according to a new study in mice. The findings also showed that a compound that protects cells in the body from damage from certain forms of oxygen, a kind of antioxidant, could suppress such neural degeneration.

U.S. researchers are using gene therapy to treat the neurological condition Parkinson's disease, and they say the results so far are promising.

A novel gene therapy technique is safe and may be effective at staving off worsening symptoms of Parkinson's disease, according to the first scientific review of a dozen patients who have received the treatment over the last three years. The results were published in the latest issue of Lancet.