α-Synucleinopathies constitute a set of neurological disorders including Parkinson’s disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple systems atrophy (MSA), and other rare disorders. The development of positron emission tomography (PET) tracers for imaging α-synuclein aggregates is essential for performing efficient and accurate diagnosis, tracking disease progression and monitoring efficacy of potential therapies.
Wesper Inc., a longitudinal and wireless clinical-grade sleep testing platform, showed ‘exceptional accuracy’ in a head-to-head comparison with polysomnography in a study published in The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. The wireless, longitudinal sleep testing platform had a breathtaking 95% correlation with the cumbersome gold standard test for sleep apnea.
A group of German and French scientists has identified 15 genetic variants in a proteasome protein complex that are related to neurodevelopmental delay and also alter interferon type 1-mediated immune signaling. The finding contributes to the diagnosis of this neurological disorder and gives an opportunity for the development of therapies in patients who have these mutations.
Medicinal cannabis company Zelira Therapeutics Ltd.’s stock shot up 224% on May 31 on the heels of news that its cannabinoid product, ZLT-L-007, outperformed Lyrica (pregabalin, Pfizer Inc) in a head-to-head trial in diabetic nerve pain.
With overuse of opioids – the standard of care for many chronic pain cases – becoming something of an epidemic in the U.S., the availability of an alternative, non-opioid analgesic is a big draw. Established in 2021, Adolore Biotherapeutics Inc. is one company that could provide the answer, with its locally and long-acting gene therapies potentially providing a breakthrough that “knocks everybody’s socks off.”
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is a group of neuropathies characterized by sensory and motor dysfunction that progress with aging. It is considered that about 60% of the axonal forms of the disease, such as CMT2, remain genetically undiagnosed.
While microglia constitute the immune cells of the brain, their potential role in the early development of neuronal circuitry is poorly understood. Investigators at the Karolinska Institutet, together with eight other institutions, characterized an anatomically distinct microglial cell population identified as expressing the arginase-1 (ARG1) enzyme.
Regenerative medicine product Stemchymal, an allogeneic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell treatment, missed the primary efficacy endpoints in two phase II spinocerebellar ataxia trials conducted in Japan and Korea, but a subpopulation analysis showed efficacy signals in patients with more severe conditions, Reprocell Inc. reported.
Celros Biotech Co. Ltd. has synthesized cytochrome b-245 heavy chain (CYBB; NOX2) and NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cirrhosis, diabetes, cancer, glomerulonephritis, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, among others.