Parkinson's disease news, articles and features | New Scientist

Mysterious ‘compound X’ clears toxic Parkinson’s proteins from brain

Carissa Wong — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:00:01 +0000

A drug known only as compound X helped to remove the problematic proteins associated with Parkinson's disease from the brains of mice, and improved their balance and mobility

Parkinson’s disease may reduce enjoyment of pleasant smells

Chris Simms — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 12:00:41 +0000

The "world smells different" for people with Parkinson's disease, a discovery that could help doctors spot the condition sooner

We’ve figured out how our brains sort imagination from reality

Carissa Wong — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:00:47 +0000

Similar brain regions are involved in imagination and perceiving reality

Naeblys/Alamy

How do you tell if something is real or imaginary? We have now discovered a brain pathway that seems to help you decide – and the finding could improve treatments for hallucinations caused by conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.

We already knew that the parts of the brain that activate when we imagine something visual are similar to those involved in perceiving actual visual stimuli, but it is unclear how we distinguish between the two. “How does our brain know which of these signals reflect our imagination or what is reality?” says at University College London.

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To find out, Dijkstra and her colleagues asked 26 people to carry out a visual task while their brain activity was recorded via MRI scans. The participants had to view a static grey block on a screen for 2 seconds, in a process repeated more than 100 times. They were also instructed to imagine seeing diagonal lines on each block, though half of the blocks really did have diagonal lines.

After viewing each block, the participants were asked to rate how vividly they saw the lines on a scale of 1 to 4 and say whether they thought the lines were real or imaginary.

By analysing the brain recordings, the researchers found that an area called the fusiform gyrus was more active when people saw lines more vividly, irrespective of whether the lines were truly there.

“We know from previous studies that this area activates during perception and imagination, but now we showed that this actually tracks how vividly you experience visual imagery,” says Dijkstra.

Crucially, when the activity in the fusiform gyrus rose above a certain threshold, this led to a jump in activity in an area called the anterior insula, leading people to judge something as real. “You’ve got this other region that’s connecting with the fusiform gyrus – perhaps it’s getting signals and giving signals back – and it’s making a more binary decision: real or not real,” says Dijkstra.

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While it is unlikely that these brain regions are the only ones involved in deciding what is real versus imaginary, further exploration of this pathway could deepen our understanding of how to treat visual hallucinations caused by conditions such as schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.

“Perhaps in people who experience visual hallucinations, either there’s too strong activity in the fusiform gyrus when they’re imagining or their anterior insula is not monitoring signals correctly,” says Dijkstra.

“I think this work is going to be informative about clinical cases,” says at the University of Exeter, UK. “But there’s quite a big step between deciding whether some small fluctuation in your sensory experience is due to something happening in the real world and seeing a fully formed hallucination – which you remain for some time convinced of,” he says.

To help bridge this gap, Dijkstra’s team is now exploring the pathway in people with Parkinson’s disease.

Journal reference:

Neuron

Parkinson’s disease could be detected by listening to someone’s voice

Clarissa Brincat — Tue, 13 May 2025 09:00:21 +0000

The pitch and hoarseness of a person's voice often changes if they have Parkinson's disease, suggesting there could be a non-invasive way of screening for the condition

A dramatic rethink of Parkinson’s offers new hope for treatment

Alexandra Thompson — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 15:00:00 +0000

Mounting evidence suggests there might be two separate types of the world’s fastest-growing neurological condition. Can this fresh understanding lead to much-needed new treatments?

Parkinson’s disease could be prevented by a recent tetanus vaccine

Clare Wilson — Wed, 29 May 2024 15:00:14 +0000

People who have had a recent vaccine against tetanus appear to be less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, suggesting that the bacterial infection is involved in the condition

Parkinson’s disease progression slowed by antibody infusions

David Cox — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 16:00:30 +0000

Aggregated clumps of the protein alpha-synuclein (brown) and antibodies (green)

BIOLUTION GMBH/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

A drug that targets a build-up of proteins linked to Parkinson’s disease could slow the progression of motor symptoms in people with advanced forms of the condition. Although this shows promise to be a disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson’s, it is unclear whether the drug actually clears the proteins from the brain. The accumulation of a misfolded protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain has long been considered the underlying cause of Parkinson’s. This leads to the loss of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is involved in motor control. While some existing treatments aim to ease these symptoms by improving dopamine levels in the brain, their long-term effects are limited. So far, there are no approved disease-modifying therapies that halt or slow the progression of Parkinson’s.

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In an effort to combat this, at Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche and his colleagues recruited 316 people who were thought to have early-stage Parkinson’s disease. Of these individuals, 105 received intravenous infusions of a placebo, while 211 had infusions of the Roche drug prasinezumab at either a low or high dose, administered every four weeks over one year. Prasinezumab is an antibody that is designed to bind to aggregated clumps of misfolded alpha-synuclein in dopamine-producing neurons. “It is hypothesised that prasinezumab may reduce neuronal toxicity, prevent cell-to-cell transfer of pathological alpha-synuclein aggregates and slow disease progression,” says Pagano. While the results of the trial initially suggested that the antibody had no meaningful impact, the team then realised it may be effective among the trial participants with more severe Parkinson’s. These individuals had rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder, where people act out intense and often violent dreams, which is common in Parkinson’s; were taking drugs called MAO-B inhibitors to manage their symptoms; or had been rated by their specialist as being at stage two out of five on a symptom scale, with a higher number indicating greater severity. An additional analysis showed that both low and high doses of the drug had a greater effect among the severe participants specifically than seen in the initial work. Compared with taking a placebo, it significantly reduced the rate at which participants’ motor symptoms worsened over the year-long period. For example, based on a Parkinson’s disease rating scale for motor symptoms, those on MAO-B inhibitors who then received placebo infusions scored 6.82 at the end of the year, while those taking both the inhibitors and prasinezumab scored 4.15. “The results imply that in a faster-progressing population, where the degree of worsening over time is greater, there is an increased likelihood of a potential treatment effect,” says Pagano. This could be because people with more rapidly progressing Parkinson’s have higher amounts of misfolded alpha-synuclein in their brains, so would probably benefit more from a drug that potentially clears the protein.

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However, Pagano says it wasn’t possible to assess exactly what was happening in any of the participants’ brains because the researchers lacked a biomarker that would have enabled them to monitor how their levels of misfolded alpha-synuclein may be changing. at the University of Florida 91ɫ��Ƭ says a limitation of the study is that it didn’t assess whether alpha-synuclein was being cleared from the brain. Without this, the results can’t conclusively show prasinezumab is disease-modifying, she says. Vedam-Mai says she would also like to see longer-term data to better gauge the drug’s safety and efficacy. No serious adverse events took place in the latest trial. Researchers could also investigate whether prasinezumab is effective in people with milder Parkinson’s disease when taken over a longer period, says Pagano.

Journal reference:

Nature Medicine

Pet dogs smell Parkinson’s disease with almost 90 per cent accuracy

David Cox — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 10:00:45 +0000

Pet dogs of various breeds have been trained to detect smells related to Parkinson's disease, potentially offering a new approach to diagnosing the condition

Beeping shoes help people with Parkinson’s disease walk further

Sara Novak — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 10:00:39 +0000

A sensor that clips onto shoes and alerts wearers when they walk with a strong stride improved stability among people with Parkinson's in a small trial

Parkinson’s spine stimulator allows man to walk 5 kilometres

David Stock — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 20:00:57 +0000

A man with severe Parkinson’s disease has experienced a substantial improvement in his ability to walk after being fitted with a device that electrically stimulates his spinal cord. The findings, although based on one person’s experience, suggest this technique could be used widely to treat movement deficits in people with the condition.