The only way we can find a cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD) is through research. Although 10 million people live with the disease worldwide, research in PD is severely underfunded. The Parkinson’s Foundation is committed to closing the funding gaps in research and increasing access to healthcare and quality-of-life programs. The Reach Further campaign is a four-year fundraising initiative that will raise an additional $30 million to support and accelerate progress on these goals.

On September 19, the Parkinson’s Foundation is hosting A Day to Reach Further, a special day of giving that highlights the tremendous progress we have made thus far. As part of this day, Rune Labs, provider of StrivePD, has generously agreed to match all gifts made on A Day to Reach Further up to $10,000.

On A Day to Reach Further, help us fund these vital research initiatives that move us toward a cure:

1. Help Fund Cutting-Edge Scientists

To cure Parkinson’s, we need to know exactly what causes it. Our research team finds and funds scientists who focus on unraveling the basic biology of Parkinson’s. This year, we awarded grants to 30 scientists who are devoted to deciphering PD and finding new ways to attack it and stop progression.

Through our grants, we fund high-risk research that typically does not receive federal funding, which means we are advancing ideas that can lead to high rewards. Studies span from untangling the connections between inflammation, aging and Parkinson’s; to connecting environmental exposures and Parkinson’s through accelerated brain aging; and deciphering gait signaling to improve movement therapies. Meet some of our researchers here.

Our research grants, fellowships and partnerships help scientists explore innovative ideas and keep them in the Parkinson’s research field, ensuring that we continue to fund a pipeline of projects that could lead us to a cure.

2. Help Fast Track New Medications & Treatments

For a new Parkinson’s drug to go from an idea to an available medication it takes funding. Launching a new drug can take years and cost upwards of one billion dollars. We are accelerating this timeline alongside Parkinson’s UK, through the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech, which is focused on building a pipeline of new drugs exclusively for Parkinson’s.

The Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech is directly investing in 13 medications that either address symptoms or aim to slow, stop or prevent the disease altogether. Some examples of these projects include:

• Drug to treat dyskinesia in people with Parkinson’s
• Clinical trial investigating the potential of a drug called ambroxol for slowing down the progression of Parkinson’s
• Drug aimed to find ways to dial down inflammation in Parkinson’s.

The Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech ensures that promising Parkinson’s treatments are not lost in the development pipeline due to lack of funding. Through this exciting initiative, we believe we can find the next life-changing treatment in years, not decades.

3. Help Accelerate Clinical Trials with Genetics

Genetics research can fast track the discovery of new PD treatments. Right now, pharmaceutical companies are developing early-stage therapies or drugs that target people with specific genetic mutations. These new drugs are being designed to slow or even stop PD. Some studies are already enrolling people in clinical trials. However, it can take years to fill these trials. For just one trial that needs 300 participants with a specific PD genetic mutation, researchers may screen up to 15,000 people.

PD GENEration: Mapping the Future of Parkinson’s Disease accelerates clinical trial recruitment — and their results. Our groundbreaking study offers genetic testing and counseling to people with PD at no cost. So far, more than 10,500 people have enrolled in the study and 12.7% of participants have tested positive for at least one of the seven Parkinson’s-related genes. Seventy-four percent of participants have never participated in a PD research study prior to PD GENEration, opening doors for people to join other research studies and advance the field.

The faster we recruit participants in this study, the sooner clinical trials can begin — and the closer we are to a research breakthrough.

DONATE TODAY

Each year, 90,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. By participating in A Day to Reach Further, you are directly investing in research that we believe will lead to new treatments and ultimately, a cure. Make a gift at Parkinson.org/ReachFurtherDay.

The most well-known Parkinson’s disease (PD) symptoms are movement-related — tremor, muscle stiffness, slow movement, trouble moving and walking. However, many people with Parkinson’s find non-movement symptoms — including sleep disturbances, depression, psychosis and constipation —more troublesome and disabling than movement symptoms. 

In Parkinson’s, a protein found in the brain called alpha-synuclein accumulates abnormally in the nervous system, forming clumps. These clumps lead to changes in the normal function of brain cells. Interestingly, alpha-synuclein clumps within the nerves of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract have also been linked to a decrease in the strength and coordination of the bowels, resulting in constipation. More than 60% of people with Parkinson’s suffer from constipation, and for most of those people it can be chronic, severe, and unresponsive to standard treatments.

The results of a new clinical trial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine show a possible treatment for constipation in people with Parkinson’s. The biotech company Enterin has developed ENT-01, a compound designed to act on nerve cells in the GI tract and prevent alpha-synuclein from clumping. An earlier study found that ENT-01 is not absorbed into the body, suggesting it acts only in the gut.

Constipation impacts more than 60% of people with Parkinson’s.

Study Results

The clinical trial enrolled 150 people with Parkinson’s and constipation, who were randomly given either ENT-01 or a placebo for 25 days. The results of the study showed:

• People with Parkinson’s and constipation who received ENT-01 had a significant increase in the number of daily bowel movements and had better stool consistency as well as ease of stool passage.
• There were no serious adverse effects of ENT-01. The most common side effects were nausea (experienced by a third of participants) and diarrhea (experienced by 20% of participants).
• A small number of participants with psychosis also saw improvements in their symptoms; however, researchers note that the study was not designed to examine improvements in cognitive symptoms.

What does this mean?

In this trial, ENT-01 was shown to help people with Parkinson’s who experience constipation. The compound will undergo further clinical testing to examine the safety and effectiveness of long-term use before it can become available.

What do these findings mean to the people with PD right now?

People with Parkinson’s who experience constipation will not yet have access to ENT-01 and should talk to their doctor about current treatment options. Depending on the clinical trial process, ENT-01 may be a treatment option for the PD community in the next few years.

Can this drug also help with cognitive issues?

A small number of participants in this study who experience psychosis saw improvements in their cognitive symptoms. However, this study was not designed to examine these symptoms, so the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech has designed a study that is. This new project will assess the potential of ENT-01 and how it may impact people with Parkinson’s who experience memory problems.

Through our collaboration with the Parkinson’s UK, the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech, is fast-tracking the development of new therapies that could treat, and ultimately cure, Parkinson’s. ENT-01 is one of these new therapies.

Learn More

The Parkinson’s Foundation believes in empowering the Parkinson’s community through education. Learn more about PD and the topics in this article through our below resources, or by calling our free Helpline at 1-800-4PD-INFO (1-800-473-4636) for answers to your Parkinson’s questions.

• Constipation & Nausea
• Constipation and Other Gastrointestinal Problems in Parkinson's Disease
• Podcast Episode 135: Feeling Nausea with Parkinson’s
• How an Innovative Research Center Studies the Gut–Brain Connection

Understanding how genetics play a role in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a crucial step to uncovering improved treatments and a cure for PD. Niccolo Mencacci, MD, PhD, has dedicated his career to identifying novel disease-associated genes responsible for Parkinson’s disease, dystonia and other movement disorders, and working with patients who have familial or suspected genetic movement disorders.

“When we identify genetic causes of neurodegeneration, we know that those genes are critical in disease mechanisms. So, it doesn’t matter how frequent or rare it is, if a gene is linked to a condition, it means we need to study how it works in the neurons,” he said. “This could pave the way for new understanding of the disease mechanism, potentially leading to new therapeutic approaches.”

Dr. Mencacci is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Northwestern University, where he runs the movement disorders genetics clinic. The creation of the clinic came from his interest in better understanding the genetics of movement disorders, and it is a multidisciplinary space that includes in-depth neurological assessment and state-of-the-art genetic tools and is run in partnership with a genetic counselor. This combination allows him to study patients and families with Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders and determine a molecular diagnosis for their condition.

“This is truly the basis for what we call precision medicine, or precision neurology,” he said. “This is a new type of program that not many other centers have, so we are trying to build it ourselves. My expertise is as a movement disorders neurologist, but I also have a PhD in human genetics, so that’s why we decided to shape the clinic this way. It’s a clinic at the border between clinical practice and research, and there’s a lot of back and forth between the two fields.”

Dr. Mencacci is also the co-lead for the Monogenic Hub of the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2), a five-year program aimed at identifying new monogenetic causes of Parkinson’s disease around the world. While previous genetic studies have mostly focused on people of white European descent, one of the major goals of the GP2 study is go beyond this group and study more people from historically marginalized populations around the world.

Separately, he is researching the genetic and molecular mechanisms of PD. He was awarded the Parkinson’s Foundation 2021 PD GENEration Fellowship Award for this work. The award allowed him to take this work, which began during his fellowship, into the next stage of his career, protecting some of his clinical time to focus on this important research.

“An exciting part of what I do in the lab in trying to understand how certain genetic mutations linked to rare forms of Parkinson’s disease may affect biological pathways that are important for disease mechanism,” he said. “This research can be hard to continue because it takes a lot of time. The support I received from the Parkinson’s Foundation was instrumental in protecting my role in this research and gave me the enthusiasm to continue this work. It’s very important to support young researchers and their research interests.”

Dr. Mencacci looks forward to the potential his research can have to improve the health and lives of people with PD. His work with people who have genetic links to PD keeps his motivation high.

“On a daily basis, I think about what an exciting time it is for genetics,” he said. “We are finally seeing the first clinical trials for patients who have genetic forms of Parkinson’s disease. For many years, we have been identifying genetic forms of Parkinson’s, but it made little difference in clinical practice. Now, we’re learning more about how genetics can influence how we manage treatment for a patient.”

He is also grateful for the support of the Parkinson’s Foundation and its backing of genetics research in Parkinson’s disease.

“The support the Parkinson’s Foundation offers people with Parkinson’s to help them understand the disease is incredible, but what they are doing to support the research community is also so important,” he said. “I’m grateful for their support of my research and for their incredible PD GENEration study, which is forming the way that genetics can be applied to Parkinson’s disease and makes genetic testing so accessible for people with Parkinson’s. It’s really changing the culture in the field of Parkinson’s disease.”

For more information on our genetics initiative, PD GENEration: Mapping the Future of Parkinson’s Disease, visit Parkinson.org/PDGENEration.