February 2021

Parkinson’s Disease: Alterations in Iron and Redox Biology as a Key to Unlock Therapeutic Strategies

 This dysfunction could then drive alterations in iron trafficking that attempt to rescue energy deficits such as the increased iron uptake to provide iron for key electron transport proteins. Considering the increased iron-loading in PD brains, therapies utilizing limited iron chelation have shown success. Greater therapeutic advancements should be possible once the exact molecular pathways

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The Relationship of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder and Freezing of Gait in Parkinson’s Disease

Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) contributes to injury due to the alteration of the expected atonia during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It occurs before the overt signs of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The co-expression of PD and RBD is characterized by non-tremor predominant subtype and higher incidence of freezing. Freezing of gait (FOG)

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Spectrum of Non-Motor Symptoms in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease is predominantly classified as a movement disorder. Beyond the textbook definition of rigidity, tremors, and bradykinesia, Parkinson’s disease encompasses an entire entity of non-motor symptom complexes that can precede the motor features by many years. Despite their significant clinical importance, the awareness of non-motor symptoms is quite negligible. Sleep disorders, gastrointestinal dysfunction, olfactory

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REST protects dopaminergic neurons from mitochondrial and α-synuclein oligomer pathology in an alpha synuclein overexpressing BAC-transgenic mouse model

Finally, decreased α-synuclein oligomer accumulation and mitochondrial dysfunction in mice correlated with nuclear REST and PGC-1α in protected SN GABAergic neurons, when compared to vulnerable dopaminergic neurons. Our findings show that increased levels of α-synuclein oligomers cause dopaminergic neuronal-specific dysfunction through mitochondrial toxicity, which can be attenuated by REST in an early model of Parkinsonian

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Clinical characteristics of newly diagnosed Parkinson’s disease patients included in the longitudinal BIO-PD study

The frequencies of symptoms and abnormal findings in PD patients were as follows: hyposmia 82.4%, substantia nigra hyperechogenicity 75.4%, history of anxiety or depression disorder 29.5%, constipation 22.1%, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep behavior disorder 22%. Conclusion: Baseline characteristics of patients enrolled in the BIO-PD study are comparable to other de novo PD cohorts,

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Effects of Resistant Starch on Symptoms, Fecal Markers and Gut Microbiota in Parkinson’s Disease – The RESISTA-PD Trial

Clinically, we observed a reduction in non-motor symptoms load in PD + RS. The reference-based analysis of metagenomes highlighted stable alpha-diversity and beta-diversity across the three groups, including bacteria producing SCFAs. Reference-free analysis suggested punctual, yet pronounced differences in the metagenomic signature in PD + RS. RESISTA-PD highlights that a prebiotic treatment with RS is

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