The Focused Ultrasound Foundation has received a $600,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
The money will be used to fund a pilot study to determine the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of using MR-guided focused ultrasound to treat dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease.
While there are surgical options for improving motor symptoms and reducing levodopa-induced motor fluctuations such as dyskinesia in Parkinson's patients, the combination of MRI with noninvasive techniques could translate into a successful alternate therapy.
The dyskinesia study, designed to treat 15 patients, will build on the experience gained during other clinical trials investigating focused ultrasound as a treatment for essential tremor and for Parkinsonian tremor.
A pilot study for essential tremor achieved positive results and has led to a larger trial for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory approval that will begin soon. Both tremor studies target part of the thalamus, deep within the brain; the dyskinesia study will be the first to target another brain structure, part of the globus pallidus.
