A 5-year PPMI cohort analysis found that lower serum uric acid independently predicted incident depression in prodromal Parkinson’s disease (HR = 0.776; 95% CI 0.619-0.974; P = 0.029).1 The signal sits beside a lower-p-value non-motor symptom predictor: higher MDS-UPDRS Part I scores also predicted depression (HR = 1.177; 95% CI 1.093-1.267; P < 0.001). Research ...
A 2022 Nature Communications study used non-contrast 3D T2-FLAIR magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map human brain lymphatic signals in living people, including apparent channels from cranial nerves and skull-base structures toward cervical lymph nodes. Research Highlights Non-contrast MRI visualized lymphatic-like brain drainage: Albayram et al. identified dorsal dural signals near venous sinuses and ventral …
A 2026 mouse study found that complete IL-6 deficiency worsened motor dysfunction and dopaminergic injury in MPTP and alpha-synuclein A53T Parkinson’s disease models, with earlier and broader vulnerability in female knockout mice.1 The result cuts against a simple “less inflammation is always better” frame: recombinant IL-6 partly improved MPTP-induced motor dysfunction and striatal dopaminergic terminal …
A 2026 review ties the Parkinson’s disease genes PINK1 and parkin to damaged-mitochondria cleanup, from damage sensing and ubiquitin tagging to autophagy recruitment and lysosomal degradation.1 That shifts “mitochondrial dysfunction” into specific failure points: tagging, extraction, transport, autophagosome recruitment, and degradation. Research Highlights 18 PARK loci frame inherited risk: PARK2 encodes parkin and PARK6 encodes …
A 2026 multicenter Italian cohort followed 216 early Parkinson’s disease patients for 24 months after levodopa initiation and found sex/gender differences in non-motor symptom burden.1 Women had higher anxiety, pain, mobility, and emotional-well-being burden, while men had higher hypersexuality. Research Highlights Longitudinal sample: The study followed 216 early levodopa-naive Parkinson patients, including 139 men and …
A 2026 mechanistic review linked microplastics to 6 proposed Alzheimer’s disease pathways and 6 proposed Parkinson’s disease pathways.1 The calibrated interpretation is that microplastics are biologically plausible brain stressors, but the human evidence does not yet prove that they cause Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease. Research Highlights Exposure is widespread: the review cited an estimate …
A 36-person Parkinson’s disease balance study found that perturbation-evoked muscle activity could be split into brainstem-latency LLR1 responses around 116-119 ms, cortical-latency LLR2 responses around 200-215 ms, and an antagonist destabilizing component around 173-181 ms.1 Parkinson’s disease lowered clinical balance scores, but the broad claim that Parkinson’s patients had higher cortical-latency LLR2 responses than older …