MDS Podcast

Sara Schaefer discusses the history, inner workings, and vision of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society with current MDS President Francisco Cardoso.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has long been considered a risky procedure for people with Parkinson's disease and cognitive impairment. In this interview, Dr. Miocinovic presents real-world data, showing that DBS might be safe and useful in carefully selected patients with moderate cognitive impairment. Read the article.

In this History of Movement Disorders Special Episode, Prof. Tiago Outeiro interviews Prof. Maria Grazia Spillantini about integral work involved in discovering the role alpha-synuclein plays in the development of Lewy bodies. She discusses where the field is now and what questions young researchers should start asking.

In this special Hot Topics episode, Dr. Filip Scheperjans discusses what we know and what we don't yet know about the gut microbiome in Parkinson's disease, theories of influencing pathways within the gut-brain axis, and future directions for exploring and altering the gut microbiome in this patient population to impact disease.

Sara Schaefer discusses with Dr. Eduardo de Pablo-Fernandez his recent paper in Movement Disorders providing retrospective pathological validation of the 2022 MDS MSA Criteria using specimens from the Queens Square Brain Bank. Read the article.

In this paper, Dr. Vrustangkumar Shah and colleagues evaluated gait in patients with Parkinson's disease in the lab and in real life, with and without levodopa through wearable sensors. Some measures are able to discriminate fallers from non-fallers in PD. Read the article.

Two clinical trials with antibodies targeting alpha synuclein in early Parkinson's disease have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Anthony Lang and Gennaro Pagano, the first authors of the articles share the results and discuss the possible future perspectives with the MDS Podcast editor, Michele Matarazzo. Read the prasinezumab article. Read the cinpanemab article.

In part 5 of the Dystonia Special Series, Dr. Francesca Morgante interviews Dr. Jill Ostrem about current and future approaches to treatment of dystonia.

In part 4 of the Dystonia Special Series, Dr. Francesca Morgante interviews Dr. Anna Sadnicka on the neural roots of dystonia.

Dr. Matarazzo interviews Émeline Courtois about the recently published article on machine learning approach to discover marketed drugs that could have an impact on the development of Parkinson's disease. Interestingly, furosemide and adrenergic drugs showed a potential protective effect in this very large cohort. Journal CME is available until January 19, 2024 Read the article.

In part 3 of the Dystonia Special Series, Dr. Francesca Morgante interviews Prof. Carolyn Sue on the Genetic landscape of dystonia.

Clozapine is a antipsychotic drug that has been marketed for decades. In this interview, Dr. Friedman shares his thoughts on its utility in Parkinson's disease along with some practical advices on how to use it in the clinic. Read the article.

In part 2 of the Dystonia Special Series, Dr. Francesca Morgante interviews Dr. Davide Martino on the non-motor features of dystonia.

Sara Schaefer speaks to Alan Whone of the University of Bristol on his retrospective analysis of off-state dyskinesias in Parkinson's disease patients who received serial infusions of GDNF into the putamen. Read the article.

In part 1 of the Dystonia Special Series, Dr. Francesca Morgante interviews Dr. Miryam Carecchio on pearls on diagnosis and phenomenology of dystonic syndrome.

Prof Martino points out the existent literature concerning the objective findings in the 3 cardinal domains of idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus. Read the article.

As part of the History of Movement Disorders series, Dr. Sara Schaefer and Dr. David Standaert discuss the research and humanitarian work by Nancy Wexler and team starting in the 1970s in the Venezuelan village of Barranquitas, which has the highest prevalence of Huntington's disease in the world.

Dr. Sara Schaefer discusses with Dr. Pineda-Pardo using focused ultrasound to temporarily open the striatal blood brain barrier in Parkinson's disease dementia patients, and the implications for the results of this safety and feasibility study including for future treatment options for these patients. Journal CME is available until December 1, 2023 Read the article.

Dr. Michele Matarazzo interviews Prof. Marjan Jahanshahi on the long term results of the clinical trial of deep brain stimulation of the nucleus basalis of Meynert in people with Parkinson's disease dementia. In the discussion Prof. Jahanshahi shares thoughts on the future directions of the field. Read the article.

In this episode, Dr. Hugo Morales Briceño discusses the spectrum of phenotypes and genotypes of children with hyperkinetic movement disorders with Dr. Belén Pérez Dueñas and Prof. Manju Kurian. Read the article.

Dr. Sarah Lidstone interviews Dr. Chang-Qing Gao & Prof. Ji-fung Guo about their recent research on the sensitivity of sniffer dogs for diagnosing Parkinson's disease. Read the article.

Members of the task force for Axial Postural Abnormalities in Parkinsonism, Prof. Tinazzi, Dr. Geroin and Dr. Artusi, discuss new nosology and cut-off values. Read the article.

Dr. Sara Schaefer discusses with Prof. Richard Smeyne how viruses including COVID-19 increase the susceptibility to oxidative stress-induced parkinsonism in mouse models, the historical evidence to support a virus-parkinsonism link, the biological basis for this correlation, and ways it may be prevented. Journal CME is available until July 29, 2023 Read the article.

Wearable sensors, electronic rating scales, eDiaries — Dr. Álvaro Sánchez-Ferro discusses with Dr. Michele Matarazzo how these and a broad range of other emerging digital technologies can help take movement disorder evaluation outside the clinic and into patients' everyday environment.

New updates to MSA criteria and clinical evaluation tools will have a critical impact on MSA care and research. Dr. Maria Teresa Pellecchia discusses with Dr. Eduardo de Pablo-Fernández the next major areas of focus, and the progression of a variety of clinical trials.