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posted by martyb on Monday June 16 2014, @03:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the Farewell,-Shaggy dept.

Sadly too late to save Casey Kasem, who died today (6/15) after a long bout with Parkinson's Disease (PD), several new developments in Parkinson's research have been spotlighted lately.

First, MRI scans can be used to detect early onset of the disease. The new technique, called "resting state fMRI" could predict the onset of Parkinson's in 11 out of 13 patients, or with 85% accuracy.

Next the University of Pennsylvania, has demonstrated that immunotherapy with specifically-targeted antibodies may block the development and spread of PD pathology in the brain. By intercepting the distorted and misfolded alpha-synuclein proteins that enter and propagate in neurons, creating aggregates, the researchers prevented the development of pathology and also reversed some of the effects of already-existing disease.

Also a UCLA genetic discovery may lead to potential early detection and treatment. A new study has provided a major breakthrough in Parkinson's disease research by identifying a new gene involved in the condition.

Your Phone as a diagnostic tool? An MIT researcher analyzed the voice characteristics of patients who had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He discovered that he could create a tool that would detect Parkinson's disease in the speech patterns of individuals. The tool could also measure progression of the disease. All it takes is a patient making a phone call and the speech being analyzed to detect irregular vocal tremors.

University of Alabama researcher thinks LRRK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase 2> inhibitors, might be able to slow or prevent the disease.

Perhaps there is hope for those watching their loved ones slip into the Parkinson's abyss.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @04:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @04:04PM (#55963)

    This old fart and Scooby Doo fan would love to send a long distance dedication to Casey: Thanks for the Memories

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @04:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @04:40PM (#55977)

      with some goddam dog dedication?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @04:44PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @04:44PM (#55982)

        and the numeral 2

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @04:50PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @04:50PM (#55989)

        You're clearly not old enough nor farty enough to appreciate the comment.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @05:03PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @05:03PM (#55995)

          to ever have heard of Negativland

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @05:39PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16 2014, @05:39PM (#56018)

            You are correct. I had to look it up and your comment was not only on-topic, but it followed very nicely my Scooby Doo reference. Well done.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17 2014, @01:07PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17 2014, @01:07PM (#56346)

        And I have to talk about a fucking dog dying!

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Tork on Monday June 16 2014, @05:55PM

      by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 16 2014, @05:55PM (#56026)

      Seconded. I read some interesting trivia about him. He was the voice of CliffJumper back in the mid-80's Transformers cartoon. He suddenly stopped providing the voice after an episode took place in 'Carbombya', out in the Middle East somewhere. Being of Middle-Eastern descent, he wasn't too keen on his heritage being made fun of in that way. I really do love the Transformers cartoon, but at the same time I'm ashamed of them for their insensitivity. I'd say in the long-run his decision to drop the show paid off.

      --
      🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
  • (Score: 1) by Laci on Monday June 16 2014, @05:10PM

    by Laci (2618) on Monday June 16 2014, @05:10PM (#56004)

    Does anybody have a link to somewhere where they actually describe how one can take the Parkinson-test over the phone? The linked article in Forbes only describes how great this is, but gives no help whatsoever to those who might actually want to test themselves...

    Thanks!