Author: Simon

I am the Director of Research at Cure Parkinson's. Before that I was working as a Parkinson's research scientist at the University of Cambridge where I conducted both clinical- and lab-based research on Parkinson's. I have worked in the Parkinson's research field for over 15 years - both academically and in biotech ventures. All of my views/opinions expressed here are solely my own, and may not reflect the views of my employer or associated parties.

Monthly research review – November 2021

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At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during November 2021.

The post is divided into 10 parts based on the type of research:

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So, what happened during November 2021?

In world news:

November 1 – American psychiatrist Professor Aaron Beck –  the father of cognitive therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (or CBT) – passed away.

 

November 13th – The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference came to an ignominious conclusion with more blah-blah promises by world “leaders”, which included a “phasedown” of unabated coal power, a 30% cut in methane emissions by 2030, and plans for a halt to deforestation by 2030. And then they all hopped back on their planes and left. Perhaps in a world of zoom meetings, we can agree to “phasedown” COP conferences instead?

 

November 26 – The World Health Organization convened an emergency meeting in Geneva amid concerns over “Omicron” – a highly mutated variant of COVID-19 in South Africa that appears more infectious than Delta.

 

November 29th – Researchers presented synthetic multicellular assemblies (“xenobots”) that can replicate kinematically by moving and compressing dissociated cells in their environment into functional self-copies (Click here to read the report and click here to read a press release on the topic).

November 29th – The number of research reports on the Pubmed search engine with the keyword “Parkinson’s” climbed over 150,000. Approximately 118,000 (~80%) of them have been published since the year 2000, & 75,494 (~50%) since 2012.

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In November 2021, there were 919 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (10,965 for all of 2021 so far). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 6 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthly research review – November 2021” →

The influence of influenza

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The potential long-term consequences of viral infections is not a popular topic for a research blog in the middle of a pandemic (and yes, we are still in the middle of it!), but there is a recent Parkinson’s-related report that is worth discussing.

Researchers have recently looked at medical records dating back several decades and noticed something interesting about influenza infections: They are associated with diagnoses of Parkinson’s more than 10 years after infection.

NOTE: The data does not indicate a causal link, just an association.

In today’s post, we will discuss what influenza is, how it has previously been associated with PD, what the new report found, and we will speculate on potential mechanisms by which viral infections could be playing a role in Parkinson’s.

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1918 Spanish flu. Source: Chronicle

Between January 1918 and December 1920, there were two outbreaks of an influenza virus during an event that became known as the 1918 flu pandemic.

Approximately 500 million people across the globe were infected by the H1N1 influenza virus, and this resulted in 50 to 100 million deaths (approximately 3-5% of the world’s population). Given that it occurred during World War 1, censors limited the media coverage of the pandemic in many countries in order to maintain morale.

The Spanish media were not censored, however, and this is why the 1918 pandemic is often referred to as the ‘Spanish flu’.

At the same time that H1N1 was causing havoc, a Romanian born neurologist named Constantin von Economo reported a number of cases involving unusual symptoms. The collection of symptoms was eventually given a name: encephalitis lethargica (EL).

Economo

Constantin von Economo. Source: Wikipedia

This disease left victims in a statue-like condition, speechless and motionless. By 1926, EL had spread around the world, with nearly five million people being affected.

vonecomo-parkinson

An individual with encephalitis lethargica. Source: Baillement

Was influenza causing EL?

Continue reading “The influence of influenza” →

Turn back Bach?

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Cellular activity generates a lot of waste and by-products. Cells have developed very efficient methods of dealing with this situation.

As we age, however, these processes become strained, and in degenerative conditions they appear to be rather dysfunctional. 

New research highlights a novel mechanism – Bach1 derepression – which points towards a new class of potential therapeutics and interesting avenues of further study.

In today’s post, we will discuss the results of this new research and explore the implications of it.

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Source: Maxpixel

I am marveling at the fact that I am typing these words.

And that you are reading them.

Consider for a moment the requirements of this arrangement. And I’m not talking about the tiny muscles changing the size of the pupil in your eye, or the neurons in your visual cortex firing in unison to give you a correct and colour-rich representation of the world in front of you that has nothing to do with the actual content being observed.

Rather, I’m thinking more about about what is going on one level down – actually inside of each cell:

A liver cell. Source: Muhadharaty

There is a universe of frenzied molecular activity in each and every cell of our bodies. And we are only just starting to build up a user guide to the densely packed, fuzzy complexity of this inner world. This video gives an extremely simplified version of some of what is going on (in reality, the interior of cells is significantly more densely packed and the activity is a vastly quicker):

And as I suggested above it should be celebrated that what occurs in these cells is so rapid, efficient and precise that I can type these words and you can read them.

All of this crazy activity, however, produces waste and by-products.

Cells have of course developed very effective means of dealing with those issues. But as we age, cells can start to struggle with the task of waste disposal. And as a result, we can start to see an accumulation of these by-products, which can lead to stress on the cell, particularly in the form of oxidative stress.

What is oxidative stress?

Continue reading “Turn back Bach?” →

ASAP 2021 funding

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Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s represents a major new funder for Parkinson’s research. They are focused on basic biology research and require their grant holders to take a very collaborative, interdisciplinary, “open science” approach.

In their first 2 years of funding, the organisation has awarded almost US$300 million in grants.

That is kind of… how should I put this?… a lot! 

In today’s post, we will look at the research projects being funded by ASAP in 2021.

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Source: iFunny

In a world of instant gratification for no effort or justification, I like people who have a little bit of foresight. Particularly when their goal is for the greater good (even if it is simply to make someone smile).

For example, in 2006, David Hampton (one of the owners of Hampton Lumber) and employees Dennis Creel and Mark Vroman, decided to do something that would take years to develop, but now amuses folks driving down Highway 18, between Grand Ronde and Willamina in Oregon.

They ‘planted’ a 300 foot wide smiley face on a hill side, by planting larch conifers which are predominantly orange/yellow in a specific arrangement, among the usual evergreen fir trees. Years later, the result is:

Source: Reddit

Another example of some inspiring farsighted thinking that is more related to our interests here is the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (or ASAP – click here to read a previous SoPD post on this initiative):

And recently the organisation made a major announcement.

What did they announce?

Continue reading “ASAP 2021 funding” →

Administrative: No more Meta

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Administrative news: The Science of Parkinson’s page on Meta has been removed.

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Source: Gadgethacks

Hi folks,

This is just a quick post to say that the SoPD page on Meta (formerly Facebook) has been removed.

This is not a ‘holier-than-thou’ protest, but rather a philosophical difference of opinions: We simply do not want to be associated with them.

Facebook went in the wrong direction some time ago. If the company now wishes to think that people will trust them with their financial details (their libra project) in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica disaster or that a name change will solve everything (remember Blackwater, it became Xe Services in 2009, then Academi in 2011,…), then good for them.

I really fear that they are not even trying to solve the issues that plague their business as they now seek to offer the fully immersive experience of “the metaverse”. In all likelihood, the move will only supercharge the problems.

I wish them well, but SoPD will not be associated.

 

All of the material on this website is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
You can do whatever you like with it!

The banner for today’s post was sourced from Economictimes

Monthly Research Review – October 2021

~ Simon ~ 6 Comments

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At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during October 2021.

The post is divided into 10 parts based on the type of research:

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So, what happened during October 2021?

In world news:

October 3rd – The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and assorted media partners publish a set of 11.9 million documents leaked from 14 financial services companies known as the Pandora Papers, revealing offshore financial activities that involve multiple current and former world “leaders”… and nothing happened.

 

October 15th – TV scriptwriters Agustín Martínez, Jorge Díaz and Antonio Mercero shocked guests at the Planeta prize ceremony, when they took to the stage to collect the main €1m prize and reveal that the celebrated crime author, Carmen Mola, does not actually exist.

 

October 16th – The Lucy spacecraft is launched by NASA, the first mission to explore the Trojan asteroids (Click here to learn more about this).

 

October 22nd – The UK Health Security Agency announced the offshoot of COVID19-Delta, known as AY.4.2 (has two mutations in the spike protein) was designated a “variant under investigation”. Preliminary evidence suggests that this subvariant could be 10-15 per cent more transmissible than the original Delta (Click here to read more about this).

(Let’s play a game of “Find the mask”. And yes, I’m picking on West Ham fans)

October 31st – The month started badly for World “leaders”, and it finished much the same way. They began flying into Glasgow for COP26 to talk and… do nothing about rising levels of atmospheric green house gases (What a waste of public morale. Joe really missed a big opportunity, and Boris… was simply Boris)

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In October 2021, there were 868 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (10,046 for all of 2021 so far). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 5 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthly Research Review – October 2021” →

Mo better for TEVA with Modag?

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This week the pharmaceutical company TEVA Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd has announced a deal with a small German biotech firm called MODAG.

The two companies are forming a strategic collaboration on the exclusive worldwide licensing and development of MODAG’s lead compound anle138b.

Anle138b is a small molecule inhibitor of the believed to be toxic forms of the Parkinson’s-associated protein alpha synuclein.

In today’s post, we will discuss what is known about anle138b and the implications of this new partnership.

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Source: SLE

In 1901, Haim Salomon and his brother-in-law Moshe Levin established a small wholesale drug business, near the Nablus Gate in Jerusalem. They called it “Salomon and Levin”. A few years later, Yitzhak Elstein, another of Haim Salomon’s brothers-in-law, joined the firm and they changed the name of the company to SLE – Salomon Levin and Elstein.

Source: SLE

From these humble beginning, grew a pharmaceutical juggernaut that we know today as TEVA Pharmaceuticals.

TEVA – meaning “Nature” in Hebrew – is now an international producer of pharmaceutical agents, with 40,000 employees working across 65 manufacturing facilities in more than 30 countries. The company has a portfolio of more than 3,500 medicines, and they produce approximately 85 billion tablets and capsules per year (Source).

Does TEVA produce any drugs for Parkinson’s?

Yes, Azilect (rasagiline) – an approved monoamine-oxidase B inhibitor for the treatment of Parkinson’s – was developed by Teva Pharmaceuticals.

In addition, they are actively developing novel therapies. And this week they signed a really interesting deal to collaborate with a small German biotech company called MODAG.

What does MODAG do?

Continue reading “Mo better for TEVA with Modag?” →

ELOVL me tender

~ Simon ~ 2 Comments

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Astrocytes are a non-neuronal cell type in the brain that play an important supportive role – nurturing neurons and helping to maintain homeostasis in the central nervous system.

When neurons get damaged or stressed, however, astrocytes can do a Jekyll & Hyde-like transformation and start releasing a toxic substance that helps to kill neurons. This nasty change in the temperament of astrocytes is believed to play a role in neurodegenerative conditions.

Exactly what the released toxic substance is has long been a mystery.

Until now it seems.

But the nature of the presumed substance is something of a surprise to the research community.

In today’s post, we will review a new research report that points towards saturated lipids as the mediators of astrocyte-induced toxicity and we will consider what this could mean for future therapies for neurodegenerative conditions.

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One of my favourite scientists to listen to is Ben Barres.

It is wonderful to go back and watch some of his old videos. Not just because you learn so much from him, but also for the passion that he always had when discussing general science, his research, and other things he believed in.

For example, watch the first 10-15 minutes of this video:

The presentation above was made on January 9th 2017, and despite knowing that he had less than a year to live, you can hear the energy and excitement in his voice for the  material he is presenting. He desperately wanted to share the information and to learn what others might think about it.

He was truly an amazing individual.

Even more so, because almost 4 years after he died, Ben is still publishing spectacular research.

Wait. What?

Continue reading “ELOVL me tender” →

Repurposing bumetanide for Alzheimer’s

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Bumetanide (Bumex) is a diuretic drug (a medication that removes water, by increasing the production of urine). It is used to treat swelling caused by heart failure or liver or kidney disease. It is a widely used drug that has been well characterised in clinical use.

Recently researchers conducted a screening study to identify clinically available agents that might be useful in the treatment of the cognitive decline associated with a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s: APOE4 

The top drug identified in their study was bumetanide.

In today’s post we will discuss what APOE4 is, we will review the results of the new study, and we will look at why these findings could be interesting for Parkinson’s.

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Source: Pharmacysafety

Many years ago, I was at a patient-research interaction event and a world-leading genetics researcher was asked by someone in the audience if they had had their DNA sequenced.

They said ‘no‘.

The person asking the question frowned and asked ‘why not? You have all the technology and knowledge – don’t you want to know more about yourself?‘

The researcher replied “No. Having your DNA sequenced should not be taken lightly. You might learn stuff about yourself that you don’t want to know”

They used the example of possibly being an APOE4 carrier (who have a higher risk of cognitive decline during aging). The geneticist declared that they would rather not know that kind of information for fear of the impact that it could have on their life.

The questioner respected the honest answer and the conversation that followed was really interesting. More recently, however, as we have learned more about APOE4 and new drugs are being targeted at this risk factor, I have often wondered if their decision would still stand. Are we approaching an age when we might want to know if we are APOE4 carriers?

Hang on a moment. What is this APOE4 thing?

Continue reading “Repurposing bumetanide for Alzheimer’s” →

Mind blowing modulation of mind

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Neuromodulation of specific circuits in the brain represents a means of adjusting deficits in neural performance and significantly improving quality of life.

Deep brain stimulation has been widely applied to the treatment of Parkinson’s since Alim Benabid first discovered that electrical stimulation of the basal ganglia improves the symptoms of the condition in the late 1980s.

Now researchers are attempting to refine the approach further with new technology (such as optogenetics) and more specific targeting – stimulating only particular types of neurons – with impressive results and potentially immediate implications for treatment.

In today’s post, we will discuss what optogenetics is, review some new preclinical results, and explore those potentially immediate implications for the treatment of Parkinson’s.

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Vienna. Source: Worldofcruising

In 2016, I was lucky enough to be at the “Dopamine” research conference in Vienna (Austria).

It is a wonderful city, the late summer weather was perfect, and an amazing collection of brilliant researchers had gathered to focus on all things dopamine-related for four days. The conference highlighted all the exciting new research being done on this chemical.

Source: Medium

There was – of course – a lots of research being presented on Parkinson’s disease as well, given that dopamine plays such a fundamental role in the condition.

And I was sitting in the lecture presentations, listening to all these new results being discussed, thinking how fantastic it all was, when a researcher from Carnegie Mellon University stood up and (without exaggeration) completely – blew – my – mind!

Basically sums my reaction. Source: Canacopegdl

Seriously. I was left speechless by the results presented.

Wow, what were the results???

Continue reading “Mind blowing modulation of mind” →