A Danish study of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Parkinson disease (PD) found that patients with IBD had a 22% increased risk of developing PD over patients without IBD. The study, published in Gut, examined all Danish residents aged 15 years or older from 1977 to 2014 in the largest and longest population-based study of links between enteric inflammation and PD.1 A growing body of research points to the role of the gut-brain axis in the development of PD, with inflammation, irritable bowel syndrome, leaky gut, and altered gut microbiota observed in the gut, often years before the onset of symptoms of PD.2 The disease is strongly associated with the accumulation of Lewy bodies, which are eosinophilic deposits that occur within cell cytoplasm and are composed of a misfolded protein, alpha-synuclein. Some research points to the gut as the origin of the misfolded protein, spreading via the vagus nerve into the brain.3 In one study, alpha-synuclein injected in the gut walls of rats migrated to the brain stem through the vagus nerve at a rate estimated to be from 5 to 10 mm per day, thus providing startling evidence of the gut-brain connection.4 In fact, Lewy pathology can be detected in the gut of patients with PD as many as 20 years before their diagnosis via motor symptoms.5 Moreover, increases in intestinal alpha-synuclein are also strongly correlated with changes in gut microbiota that lead to inflammation and elevated permeability of the gut barrier.6 The possibility that PD may originate in the gut is also supported by discoveries of close associations between PD and inflammatory markers, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin 6, which are present in patients with ulcerative colitis, IBD, and Crohn disease.2 Patients with PD have a distinctive fecal microbiome, even when they have shared the same diet for decades with other members of their households without PD Continue reading →

Drug developer Theravance Biopharma (NASDAQ:TBPH) is not your typical biotech company. It emerged in 2014 from a spinoff of the R&D branch of its parent company, now called Innoviva (NASDAQ:INVA). Shareholders in Innoviva received a dividend of Theravance Biopharma stock Continue reading →

AbbVie (ABBV) reported that it has received conditional approval in Europe for its proposed merger with Allergan (NYSE:AGN). Continue reading →

Further Strengthens Global Intellectual Property Portfolio for Tedopi in Immuno-Oncology Regulatory News: OSE Immunotherapeutics (ISIN: FR0012127173; Mnmo: OSE) (Paris:OSE) today announced that the Japanese Patent Office has issued a new patent family related to Tedopi, a combination of neoepitopes, protecting the products method for inducing early T-lymphocyte memory response for use in the treatment of cancer in HLA-A2 positive patients. This patent provides a protection until 2035. Tedopi is a combination of 10 neo-epitopes, selected and optimized from five tumor associated antigens inducing a specific immune response in positive HLA-A2 patients. Continue reading →

Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys LAS VEGAS (PRWEB) January 11, 2020 Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys is honored to pay tribute to the memory of Dana Marshall-Bernstein by supporting the Crohn's and Colitis Foundations inaugural Courage Ball. Continue reading →