Treating Parkinson's Disease Dementia With Nanoscaffolds
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$665,144.00
Summary
Several diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), result in dementia. Currently, pharmacological therapy is the only treatment for PD dementia, which only offers symptomatic relief with diminished efficacy. Therefore, there is a need to develop new strategies that prevent or slow the onset of dementia. This study will utilize nanoscaffolds that facilitate the controlled delivery of therapeutic proteins to prevent or slow the death of neurons associated with dementia in PD patients.
Investigating The Clinical And Research Applications Of Whole-genome Sequencing In Parkinson Disease And Other Movement Disorders
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$266,623.00
Summary
There are many ‘movement disorders’ including Parkinson disease, dystonia, and hereditary spastic paraplegia. These disorders can be caused by mutations (errors in the genetic code) in different genes. The discovery of these genes has improved our understanding of the underlying disease mechanisms. We will use ‘whole genome sequencing’ to read a person’s entire genetic material in a single experiment, allowing us to identify a genetic diagnosis and to discover entirely new disease-causing genes.
SELECTIVE VULNERABILITY IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND RELATED DISORDERS: MECHANISM OF TAU PATHOLOGY
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,072,324.00
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias affect 230,000 people in Australia, with numbers expected to grow to 730,000 by 2050. The direct costs for health and residential care alone exceed $6.6 billion per annum. By identifying genes that protect degenerating neurons in the Alzheimer brain, a deeper understanding of the underlying processes will be gained and therapeutic targets will be defined that will assist in developing a therapy for a yet uncurable disease.
L1 Retrotransposition: The Missing Link Between Genetics And Environmental Factors In Parkinson's Disease ?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$604,644.00
Summary
The study proposed here focuses on understanding the role of specific mobile DNA sequences in the interaction between environmental and genetic risk factors causing Parkinson’s disease (PD) leading to dementia. The project proposes identification of mobile DNA induced mutations in post-mortem human PD patient brain samples. The significance and mechanisms of mobile DNA induced mutations will be then tested in a PD mouse model.
Neuroprotection Against Parkinson’s Disease With Remote Photobiomodulation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$314,818.00
Summary
Treating the head of rodents with low-intensity 670nm light protects against Parkinson’s disease (PD), but the large size of the human skull and brain precludes clinical translation of this treatment. We have discovered that the brain is also protected when light is targeted at peripheral tissues (e.g. a limb), overcoming problems of delivery. This project aims to optimise this treatment and better understand how it works, to lay the scientific basis for a clinical trial.
Closed-loop Deep Brain Stimulation: Optimising Treatment Of Parkinson’s Disease Using Adaptive Stimulation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$726,177.00
Summary
Deep brain stimulation is an established therapy for Parkinson's disease when patients’ symptoms cannot be controlled adequately using medication. Although deep brain stimulation usually improves quality of life significantly, existing devices have shortcomings that often result in poor symptom alleviation and/or undesirable side-effects. This project is aimed at developing an innovative system that automatically adjusts stimulation according to the continually fluctuating needs of each patient.
Clarifying The Clinical Application And Mechanisms Of Pedunculopontine Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation For Parkinson’s Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$202,320.00
Summary
Over 64,000 Australians have Parkinson’s disease. Most patients with Parkinson’s disease ultimately develop gait ‘freezing’ and poor balance, which impair quality of life and cause falls. Unfortunately, gait freezing and poor balance often don’t improve with conventional treatments. We are therefore helping to develop a new treatment for these symptoms, which involves implanting a pacemaker into a very deep region in the brain called the “Pedunculopontine Nucleus’.
Tremor is the rhythmic shaking of a body part and is a common and disabling problem seen in diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Essential Tremor. At present there is no single diagnostic test to determine the cause of a person’s tremor. This project aims to combine the use of sensors that measure tremor and muscle activity with clinical assessment to develop new tests for reliably diagnosing and monitoring tremor, a key step to treating patients correctly and conducting future drug trials.
Trials of numerous agents to slow the progression of Parkinsons disease have provided ambiguous or negative results despite having good preliminary evidence for their efficacy. The most likely reason is that many nerve cells are already destroyed by the time of diagnosis. Thus effective therapies may be most (and possible only) effective when administered in the presymptomatic stages of disease. This proposal is directed at developing method to detect early presymptomatic Parkinsons disease.
Copper Pathways Are Altered In Parkinson’s Disease: Implications For Cell Vulnerability
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$341,398.00
Summary
The cause of brain cell death in Parkinson’s disease is unknown but we have shown that copper levels are reduced in the vulnerable brain regions in this disorder. As copper is vital for the normal function of key brain proteins we suggest that reduced copper contributes to cell damage in vulnerable brain regions. This project investigates why brain copper levels are reduced in the Parkinson’s disease brain and the consequences of this change for brain cell function and survival.