This time we’ve pulled together a study of a new stimulation treatment for the non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s, and basic research that worked out the structure of a gene widely seen as a key target for new drugs. One could help with symptoms of the mind, such as low mood and apathy; the other could help design the drugs still to come.

Story 1

Non-surgical stimulation through the scalp reduced low mood and increased activity

🔍 What the study found

In 20 people with Parkinson’s, electrodes placed on the scalp delivered a weak direct current — transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)A non-surgical stimulation method that passes a weak direct current into areas near the surface of the brain, through electrodes placed on the scalp. It needs no surgery and no anesthesia.Learn more — three times a week, for 10 sessions in total over several weeks. The results were published in the international journal Acta Neuropsychiatrica. With stimulation aimed at the part of the brain that regulates emotion, low mood fell by about 54% and anxiety by about 38%, while apathyA loss of motivation and drive, without feeling sad or depressed. What sets it apart from depression is that the person is usually not particularly troubled by the state itself.Learn more improved by about 25%. Measured with a wrist-worn wearable device, daytime activity also rose noticeably. The interesting part is that activity rose more when apathy improved than when low mood did — the research team explained that motivation coming back played the larger role in turning into actual movement.

“This shows that non-invasive brain stimulation can improve emotional symptoms while at the same time increasing how much people actually move, which suggests tDCS has considerable potential as a safe and effective add-on treatment.”
— Professor Ho Kyung Yoon, lead researcher
Read the original (MedicalXpress)

✅ If you have Parkinson’s

tDCS is not surgery that implants electrodes in the brain, the way deep brain stimulation (DBS)Surgery that places thin electrodes deep in the brain to deliver continuous fine electrical stimulation. It is considered when medication alone no longer controls symptoms well.Learn more does — it delivers stimulation from outside the scalp, so the burden is far lower. No clear side effects were reported in this study either.

This was a small study in 20 people, and it is not an established standard treatment anywhere yet. Motor symptoms tended to improve alongside, but the main aim of this study was non-motor symptoms such as low mood and apathy.

🙋 If you’re a care partner

Rather than putting the low mood or apathy the person you care for is going through down to personality, it helps to know together that these are symptoms you can approach as treatable. And as this result suggests — with reduced activity tied more to apathy than to low mood — it also helps to look at the two separately.

Story 2

How LRRK2, a key drug target, actually works has been mapped

🔍 What the study found

A team at Weill Cornell Medicine in the U.S., working with UC San Francisco and Goethe University in Germany, captured 16 different structures of the LRRK2The leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 gene. Variants here are known to be associated with Parkinson's that starts relatively later in life, and it is the most commonly implicated gene known so far.Learn more protein by electron microscopy, and published in the international journal Cell how the protein moves between an “off” state and an “on” state. Normally it sits folded up, blocking its own active site; when certain changes occur, it shifts into a switched-on shape with that site exposed. The team confirmed that several Parkinson’s-related variants each keep the protein switched on, in their own different ways. Drugs targeting LRRK2 are currently being studied in four clinical trials, and this structural map could be used to design them more precisely.

“These observations have revealed the rules that determine whether LRRK2 sits in its on state or its off state.”
— Professor Samara Reck-Peterson, chair of the department of biochemistry and biophysics
Read the original (MedicalXpress)

✅ If you have Parkinson’s

This is not news that a new drug is arriving right now. But drugs targeting LRRK2 are already in clinical trials, so read it as news that the more basic research like this builds up, the more precise those drugs could become.

This is basic research that worked out the structure of a protein. It may have no direct bearing on the majority of people with Parkinson's who carry no LRRK2 variant, and actual drug development still needs more time.

🙋 If you’re a care partner

LRRK2 is a name that comes up often in discussions of inherited Parkinson’s. If family history is on your mind, our article on whether Parkinson’s is hereditary goes into the genetics, LRRK2 included, in more detail.

What you can do now

Neither story changes the treatments available today. Keep in mind that new add-on treatments such as tDCS are being researched for non-motor symptoms, and that drugs aimed at targets like LRRK2 are steadily working their way through clinical trials — and if you are having symptoms such as low mood or apathy, it is worth raising them with your care team at your next appointment.

ParkinON has rewritten recently published research and news coverage in plain language for this article. It is not a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment, and it says nothing about whether a treatment is approved or available where you live. If you have questions about a new treatment, please talk with your care team.