There’s a new app for tracking symptoms of Parkinson disease, Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases may share characteristics with mad cow disease, and a skin test may one day be used to detect both AD and PD.
More than 1 million persons in the United States have Parkinson disease (PD), and an estimated 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer disease (AD), according to the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders.Research into causes and cures for these conditions is ongoing. See the slides that follow for details about these recent findings:
• A new iPhone app allows patients with PD to track their symptoms and share them with researchers studying the disease in real time.
• A researcher at the Scripps institute in Florida thinks that PD and AD spread like infections.
• Researchers in Mexico found that persons with AD or PD have raised levels of skin proteins associated with these diseases. Â
. A new iPhone app allows patients with Parkinson disease (PD) to track their symptoms and share them with researchers studying the disease in real time. . A researcher at the Scripps institute in Florida thinks that PD and Alzheimer disease (AD) spread like infections.
• Researchers in Mexico found that persons with AD or PD have raised levels of skin proteins associated with these diseases.
. A new iPhone app allows patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) to track their symptoms and share them with researchers studying the disease in real time. The app, mPower, was developed by Sage Bionetworks, with Ray Dorsey, MD, Karl Kieburtz, MD, and Max Little, PhD. The app is being used as part of a study to understand how PD affects daily life. The app can be downloaded at the Apple App Store. Eventually apps may be used to help clinicians monitor their patients’ PD symptoms.http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=4268
Blocking disease spread from cell to cell could treat PD and AD. Finding drugs to neutralize misfolded proteins is a focus of Dr Lasmezas’ research. Eventually the approach of treating PD and AD as infectious diseases-as well as other neurological conditions characterized by aberrant proteins-could make it to the clinic.
A skin test may be used to detect AD and PD. Skin biomarkers for brain disorders are being studied by Dr Ildefonso Rodriguez-Leyva and colleagues from the University of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. In embryos, skin develops from the same source as brain tissue. Dr Rodriguez-Leyva found 20 persons with AD and 16 with PD had raised levels of skin tau and alpha-synuclein compared with healthy controls. Skin tests eventually could be used as a noninvasive way to test for neurological conditions, although more work is needed. http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31585299
