Longevity science

Researchers at Northeastern University in Boston have developed a gene therapy approach that may one day stop Parkinson’s disease (PD) in it tracks, preventing disease progression and reversing its symptoms.

The novelty of the approach lies in the nasal route of administration and nanoparticles containing a gene capable of rescuing dying neurons in the brain.

A device that delivers electrical shocks directly into the brain has been shown to alleviate symptoms in people with early stage Parkinson’s disease better than the best treatments being used today. Normally reserved as a last resort for patients with severe symptoms and for whom drugs are ineffective, the deep brain stimulation’s newly found effectiveness could promote it to the first line of attack against the disease at the earliest detection of symptoms.

A new initiative aims to make detection of Parkinson’s disease as easy as making a phone call. Computer algorithms developed by TED Fellow and applied mathematician Max Little can analyze vocal recordings for characteristic anomalies in an individual’s voice brought on by the disease.

The noninvasive method can detect Parkinson’s with 86 percent accuracy in blind testing of 50 voices, and the rate increases to 99 percent when individual’s have mid to late stage Parkinson’s.

A study at the University of Toronto on a handful of people with suspected mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) suggests that a device that sends continuous electrical impulses to specific “memory” regions of the brain appears to increase neuronal activity.

Results of the study using deep brain stimulation, a therapy already used in some patients with Parkinson’s disease and depression, may offer hope for at least some with AD, an intractable disease with no cure.