Christian A. Ganoza,Ana Westenberger,Jefri J. Paul,Filipa Curado,Emma N. Somerville,Jörg Rennecke,Peter Bauer,Christian Beetz
{"title":"Data from the ROPAD study corroborate an association between ITSN1 loss-of-function variants and Parkinson’s disease","authors":"Christian A. Ganoza,Ana Westenberger,Jefri J. Paul,Filipa Curado,Emma N. Somerville,Jörg Rennecke,Peter Bauer,Christian Beetz","doi":"10.1038/s41531-026-01562-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-026-01562-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19706,"journal":{"name":"NPJ Parkinson's Disease","volume":"479 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149049073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reply to: Data from the ROPAD study corroborate an association between ITSN1 loss-of-function variants and Parkinson’s disease","authors":"Guillaume Cogan,Christelle Tesson,Lisa Welment,Fabienne Clot,Eric LeGuern,Aymeric Lanore,Alexandra Dürr,Florence Cormier-Dequaire,Bérengère Debilly,Marc Planes,Graziella Mangone,Suzanne Lesage,Alexis Brice","doi":"10.1038/s41531-026-01470-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-026-01470-0","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19706,"journal":{"name":"NPJ Parkinson's Disease","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149049071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stem cell-derived brain repair for Parkinson’s disease: a review of strategies to improve engraftment","authors":"Giulia Comini,Mark Denham,Eilís Dowd","doi":"10.1038/s41531-026-01574-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-026-01574-7","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived dopaminergic progenitor transplantation has received conditional approval in Japan for Parkinson’s disease following the Kyoto Phase I/II trial. Early clinical studies demonstrate favourable safety and preliminary efficacy, but interpretation is limited by open-label designs. Preclinical evidence reveals variable graft survival and low differentiation efficiency, highlighting opportunities for optimisation. This review examines strategies to improve survival, differentiation, and functional integration of transplanted dopaminergic progenitors.","PeriodicalId":19706,"journal":{"name":"NPJ Parkinson's Disease","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149049072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
André Fienemann, Julia C Prietzsche, Joshua Laβ, Christoph Much, Susen Schaake, Theresa Lüth, Carolin Gabbert, Alexander Zimprich, Elisabeth Stögmann, Theresa König, Christos Ganos, Tuğçe Gül-Demirkale, A Nazlı Başak, Roland Dominic G Jamora, Raymond L Rosales, Gerard Saranza, Cid Czarina E Diesta, Meret Möller, Max Borsche, Teresa Kleinz, Alexander Balck, Norbert Brüggemann, Philip Seibler, Christine Klein, Joanne Trinh
{"title":"Unified long-read panel for Parkinson's and repeat expansion disorders.","authors":"André Fienemann, Julia C Prietzsche, Joshua Laβ, Christoph Much, Susen Schaake, Theresa Lüth, Carolin Gabbert, Alexander Zimprich, Elisabeth Stögmann, Theresa König, Christos Ganos, Tuğçe Gül-Demirkale, A Nazlı Başak, Roland Dominic G Jamora, Raymond L Rosales, Gerard Saranza, Cid Czarina E Diesta, Meret Möller, Max Borsche, Teresa Kleinz, Alexander Balck, Norbert Brüggemann, Philip Seibler, Christine Klein, Joanne Trinh","doi":"10.1038/s41531-026-01585-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41531-026-01585-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this study, we designed a gene panel based on Nanopore long-read sequencing using adaptive sampling, targeting n = 564 genes associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) and repeat expansion disorders. We investigated its diagnostic utility in n = 18 patients with (1) pathogenic variants in LRRK2, PRKN, SNCA, and RAB32 (n = 7); (2) idiopathic PD or FTD negative for known genetic causes (n = 3); (3) repeat expansions in ATXN1, ATXN2, ATXN3, C9orf72, DAB1, FGF14, HTT, and TAF1-SVA (n = 8). Three individuals were multiplexed per flow cell, achieving a mean coverage of 24X (SD = ± 9X) per sample. Ultimately, 17/20 (85%; Clopper-Pearson 95% CI: 62-97%) expected pathogenic variants were identified; i.e., an SNCA triplication and two repeat expansions in C9orf72 and TAF1-SVA were missed. Additional variants in STXBP2, AP4S1, RARS2, ALS2, and CNBP were identified in five patients. Adaptive sampling is a versatile genetic diagnostic tool in neurodegenerative disorders, while enabling cost-effective multiplexing. Further validation and improvements in bioinformatic analysis are needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":19706,"journal":{"name":"NPJ Parkinson's Disease","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13612410/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149040326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Berkan Koyak,Timo Menzel,Martin Rodemann,Guido Hennes,Annika Spottke,Eva Saxler,Janis Bedarf,Jennifer Faber,Michael Sommerauer,Patrick Weydt,Martin Reuter,Mario Botsch,Ullrich Wuellner,N. Ahmad Aziz
{"title":"Interaction- and asymmetry-aware facial blendshape analysis for objective quantification of Parkinsonian hypomimia","authors":"Berkan Koyak,Timo Menzel,Martin Rodemann,Guido Hennes,Annika Spottke,Eva Saxler,Janis Bedarf,Jennifer Faber,Michael Sommerauer,Patrick Weydt,Martin Reuter,Mario Botsch,Ullrich Wuellner,N. Ahmad Aziz","doi":"10.1038/s41531-026-01579-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-026-01579-2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Reduced facial expressivity (hypomimia) is an early motor feature of Parkinson’s disease (PD), yet its assessment still relies on subjective, coarse-grained clinical scales. Using ExpressionTracker, a consumer-grade application built on Apple’s ARKit framework, we derived 261 facial expression features during standardised cued expression tasks in 34 people with PD and 36 healthy controls (HC). Beyond the expected reduction in movement amplitude, PD was characterised by increased facial asymmetry and attenuated activity of ipsilateral mouth and eye regions. Interaction and asymmetry features were prominent among the between-group differences and explained 38 to 42 percent of the variance in clinician-rated hypomimia. For diagnostic classification (PD versus HC) under nested cross-validation, the best model (gradient boosting machine, GBM) reached an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.834 (95% CI 0.733 to 0.923), followed by XGBoost (0.810, 95% CI 0.702 to 0.906) and light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM; 0.804, 95% CI 0.697 to 0.899). Engineered ARKit features outperformed an amplitude-only baseline (maximum AUC 0.75, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.86) and a demographic confounder-only baseline using age and sex (maximum AUC 0.68, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.80). These results indicate that automated facial blendshape analysis captures multidimensional motor dysfunction beyond amplitude reduction alone, positioning ExpressionTracker as a candidate digital biomarker for community screening, disease monitoring, and drug-efficacy assessment in future clinical trials.","PeriodicalId":19706,"journal":{"name":"NPJ Parkinson's Disease","volume":"474 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149020376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrew McGarry,Christopher R. Meyer,Karl Kieburtz,Jordan Dubow,Milton H. Werner,Charles Venuto
{"title":"Time-to-event analyses of motor examination and functional outcomes in early Parkinson’s disease clinical trials","authors":"Andrew McGarry,Christopher R. Meyer,Karl Kieburtz,Jordan Dubow,Milton H. Werner,Charles Venuto","doi":"10.1038/s41531-026-01578-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-026-01578-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19706,"journal":{"name":"NPJ Parkinson's Disease","volume":"193 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149020374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chao Tang, Jiaxin Yang, Ming Zhang, Xiaoyang Lei, Yi Chen, Xiaoxue Peng, Dian He
{"title":"Beyond motor symptoms: associations between sleep disorders and multidomain functional decline in Parkinson’s disease","authors":"Chao Tang, Jiaxin Yang, Ming Zhang, Xiaoyang Lei, Yi Chen, Xiaoxue Peng, Dian He","doi":"10.1038/s41531-026-01554-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-026-01554-x","url":null,"abstract":"Sleep disorders are associated with functional outcomes in Parkinson’s disease (PD), yet their multidomain clinical correlates remain incompletely characterized. We analyzed 9195 participants from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center database using inverse probability weighting (IPW) to balance measured covariates between PD patients and controls. Associations of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), insomnia, and sleep apnea with motor, cognitive, neuropsychiatric, and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) outcomes were evaluated using logistic regression, exploratory sequential mediation, and machine learning. RBD showed the broadest multidomain association profile, including stronger associations with bradykinesia, hallucinations, and selected IADL impairments. Insomnia showed a more mixed profile, with neuropsychiatric associations but inverse or null associations for several IADL items, whereas sleep apnea showed more circumscribed associations. RF models showed the strongest discrimination for RBD (AUC = 0.851) and lower discrimination for insomnia and sleep apnea (AUC = 0.667 and 0.666, respectively). Exploratory SEM results were compatible with a motor-related indirect pathway between sleep disorders and IADL impairment (Sleep -> Motor -> IADL; statistical mediation proportion, 35.8%), whereas cognitive and neuropsychiatric pathways showed suppression patterns. Overall, distinct sleep disorders in PD were associated with different functional profiles. These findings support cautious, disorder-specific screening hypotheses that require longitudinal and interventional validation before clinical implementation.","PeriodicalId":19706,"journal":{"name":"NPJ Parkinson's Disease","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149010520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maximilian Scherer, Nina Wiedemann, Kai Bötzel, Matthias Löhle, Thomas Kriesen, Daniel Cantré, Jan Hinnerk Mehrkens, René Reese, Thomas Koeglsperger
{"title":"Inconsistent subthalamic local field potential beta activity amid in- and antiphasic neuronal bursts.","authors":"Maximilian Scherer, Nina Wiedemann, Kai Bötzel, Matthias Löhle, Thomas Kriesen, Daniel Cantré, Jan Hinnerk Mehrkens, René Reese, Thomas Koeglsperger","doi":"10.1038/s41531-026-01531-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41531-026-01531-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Elevated subthalamic (STN) beta (12-32 Hz) local field potentials (LFP) are a hallmark of Parkinson's disease and closely tied to synchronized spiking. The biomarker guides deep brain stimulation (DBS) lead implantation and is under investigation to inform DBS programming and adaptive DBS, yet its prevalence has not been independently assessed. This study assesses the biomarkers prevalence and investigating its relationship to synchronized beta-bursting neurons. STN LFPs and spiking activity of n = 156 patients with Parkinson's disease from seven DBS centers recorded via microelectrodes were examined and spectral LFP peaks classified. The distribution of phase angles between beta LFP and beta-bursting neurons was explored. Beta LFPs were bilaterally expressed in 47.25% of patients (65.59% of hemispheres). LFP-synchronized neuronal spiking clustered in two peaks, 182.84° phase shifted. This applied on the group level and for individual patients. Beta-LFP-informed approaches mandate reliable biomarker expression, a requirement not met by 52.75% of patients. This is particularly troublesome for intraoperative guidance wherein the cause of biomarker absence, including DBS lead misplacement or a balanced ratio of phasic and antiphasic spiking neurons, cannot be determined. While STN-LFP beta remains a valuable biomarker, multiple biomarkers should be evaluated simultaneously to increase robustness.</p>","PeriodicalId":19706,"journal":{"name":"NPJ Parkinson's Disease","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13582961/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148983493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}