Parkinson's Disease And Movement Disorders News

Nina Willis had been working at our Movement Disorders Clinic at Morreene Road for almost a decade when the COVID-19 epidemic reached the United States. Now she’s helping patients with movement disorders get the care they need via telehealth. In this week’s “spotlight” interview, Willis talks to us about how her work has changed over the past month, how the new telehealth visits are benefiting patients, and how her faith and her colleagues help her get through difficult times.

This February, members of the Duke Department of Neurology contributed to 10 new research articles in peer-reviewed journals. At the microscopic level, new studies examined how ion channels in endothelial cells may contribute to hypertension associated with obesity, and reviewed how DNA damage contributes to neuronal death in Parkinson’s disease. And at the system-wide level, our Stroke team discussed the massive IMPROVE Stroke Care project, which includes a network of nearly 100 hospitals, and hundreds of other agencies and communities.

In a continuous effort to evaluate curative therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Duke will soon be conducting a new pilot study that administers curcumin—an ingredient found in turmeric and curry powder associated with reduced inflammation—to evaluate the degree to which the microbiome in patients with ALS can be changed over time, potentially decreasing the rate of disease progression.

Members of the Duke Department of Neurology contributed to nine studies in peer-reviewed journals published in December 2019. In the fields of neurodegeneration and neuromuscular disease, our faculty found potential new avenues for therapies for spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) and myasthenia gravis. Other studies by our faculty and housestaff answered important questions about how reductions in blood pressure affect outcomes for thrombectomy, outcomes for deep brain stimulation for patients with Parkinson’s, and other areas.

Not all neurological diseases pose a greater risk for women. For Parkinson’s disease, women are less likely to develop the diseases and usually do so at a  later age. Still, Parkinson’s and other movement disorders pose unique concerns for women, including lower access to home care and a higher risk for some side effects. In our final entry in our Women’s Health and Neurology series, Anna Bjornsdottir, MD, discusses possible reasons for these discrepancies, which range from different environmental exposures between men and women to possible neuroprotective effects of estrogen.