Journey With Parkinson’s: The Year in Review (2024) and Happy New Year (2025)

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice.” T. S. Eliot

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” Hal Borland

Précis: This post is a review of my public journey and life steps with Parkinson’s approaching the 10th year of the blog: i) words from the beginning; ii) starting the new year with a good meal full of Southern tradition; iii) a personal health report; iv) an update on Parkinson’s in 2024; and v) what does the future look like in 2025.

“Let each new year find you a better person.” Benjamin Franklin

A thought from Day 01, March 9, 2015: I began my journey and Parkinson’s-life-story with this blog post entitled, “I’m Still Here: Life with Parkinson’s” (Click here).  The first blog post ended with the comment: “I am trying to live life well and authentically, and not be defined by my PD. With the help of family, friends, colleagues, and personal physicians, my goals are to stay positive and strive to keep focused on what matters the most…I am still here!”

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” Tom Peters

The New Year Started Right with a Southern Good Luck Meal: We had a traditional Southern dinner for New Year to give you good luck for the year. It consisted of ham (from Snake River Farms in Idaho, oh my, a perfect ham!), in true Alabama tradition, collard greens, black-eyed peas served as Hoppin’ John, and cornbread cooked in a cast iron skillet. To get the details and the meaning of everything for the meal, go to this blog post: “Journey with Parkinson’s: A Southern Good Luck Meal in the New Year” (click here).

“Many years ago I resolved never to bother with New Year’s resolutions, and I’ve stuck with it ever since.” Dave Beard

My 2024 in Review: My year can be summarized by a single line from a great blues classic by Albert King (Born Under A Bad Sign), “If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all.” Listen to the blues master Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughn, play together in an excellent rendition of the song. A good blues song will always bring your soul and feelings up a few notches toward feeling good again.

Each month last year, it would seem, brought new challenges to my life. Much of the chronic pain that I experienced is due to my lower back, right knee, and right hip. The details of repair and therapy have been ongoing, and we are making progress. My savior for much of this has been a lot of physical therapy (PT). The knee maxed out pain-wise at probably the worst time. We spent the week at the US Open Golf tournament in Pinehurst, NC. It was a fantastic golf tournament marred by my physical pain bearing down on me with every step. I had surgery to repair the knee soon after that, with a considerable diminishing of pain. Like in many older adults, I have some partial degenerative disc disorder. I have an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in treating such processes. I have now had a spinal procedure where he injected small amounts of steroids and anti-inflammatory substances in and around the L4-L5 interface and nerve projections. The pain in my lower back and glutes was gone within a day. The key question is, for how long? The hip X-ray shows osteoarthritis and mobility is affected, and the constant groin pain has not lessened with PT. I am getting second surgery opinions this month, but surgery to replace the damaged hip is likely happening sometime during for this new year.

Furthermore, part of Parkinson’s evilness likely has contributed to cataracts in both of my eyes (and some macular degeneration). Cataract surgery is happening next month. For further information about how Parkinson’s affects the eyes, please read the blog post, “Parkinson’s: The Eyes Have It,” click here—enough of this health reporting. I had some medical problems identified in 2024, and 2025 will be spent rectifying and dealing with these issues. While some of it can be attributed to Parkinson’s, it just highlights that they can still evolve into separate medical problems as we age, in the backdrop of Parkinson’s. There are far many worse health issues than just described above. I will deal with the procedures, recovery, and PT and come back stronger and healed.

“Every man regards his own life as the New Year’s Eve of time.” Jean Paul

Being A Scientist: It has never been easy to explain to non-science people (i.e., most of the world population) what exactly you mean when you say, “I am a scientist.” We spend our lives investigating the unknown, advancing and refining the known, but trying to describe what you do has never been an easy conversation. Nonetheless, I would not have traded anything for having had a 40-something-year career in science.
Here are two of my favorite science qu¹otes:
“Research is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.” Albert Szent-Györgyi 
“There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.”Isaac Asimov

“Maybe this year, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws, but looking for potential.” Ellen Goodman

Scientific Advances of Parkinson’s in 2024: Instead of giving you my perspective I will let my friend Dr. Simon Stott at the “Science of Parkinson’s” blog, give you his summary of what happened: “The Science of Parkinson’s, Year in Review: 2024” (Click here).

Brief Overview of Some Clinical Trials Started and New Products Released in 2024:  We all know that the “gold standard” of treatment is Carbidopa/Levodopa. We have had this therapy for many years, but there are always some substantial negatives involved with this treatment strategy. The existing arsenal consists of variations linked to Carbidopa and Levodopa, and include products like Sinemet, Sinemet CR, Parcopa, Rytary, and Duopa. Recently, the US FDA approved Crexont, made by Amneal Specialty, a division of Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC, a new extended-release Carbidopa/Levodopa (go here for the company description)..

Vyalev (also known as Produodopa), from AbbVie, delivers a small amount of levodopa through a small pump under the skin was approved by the FDA in October, 2024. The delivery of a constant supply of carbidopa/ levodopa (or what they call foslevodopa and foscarbidopa) eliminates the ‘off-on’ periods. There is a period of learning with a nurse, and testing of the appropriate amount of foslevodopa/foscarbidopa, but it looks promising if one suffers from off-on periods with regular carbidopa/levodopa.

We all likely know how effective a dopamine agonist can modify motor dysfunction. However, this effectiveness comes heavily weighed down by potential compulsive-behavior and personality issues. Cerevel Therapeutics/Pzifer is entering Phase III trial with Tavapadon, a dopamine receptor agonist compound targeted for dopamine D1 and D5 receptor subtypes to circumvent this’ behavior’ issue.

ND0612 from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation/Neuro Derm, which is in Phase III trial of a novel approach by being able to administer a customizable dose of carbidopa/levodopa using a 24-hour continuous subcutaneous infusion with a pump system. The idea is to bypass the unpredictability of the issues with oral carbidopa/levodopa.

Pharma Two B is testing in Phase III trial P2B001, which includes the following compounds: extended-release pramipexole, a low-dose dopamine agonist, and rasagiline, a low-dose MAO-B inhibitor. Their idea was to use low doses of these compounds, hoping to offer superior symptom control with reduced side effects.

Another Phase III trial involves BIIB122/DNL151 from Biogen/Denali Therapeutics. In contrast to all the drugs mentioned above, this compound is a small-molecule inhibitor of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) involved in Parkinson’s progression. LRRK2 disrupts lysosomal function and the processing of protein degradation, and the hope is that by inhibiting its action, normal activity can be restored to this all-important cell action. The focus of the trial is targeted individuals with known pathological LRRK2 variants.

A novel target is being studied in a Phase III trial by Annovis Bio in their compound Buntanetap. The goal of Buntaetap is to reduce neurotoxic proteins in Parkinson’s by reducing neurodegeneration that is promoted by pathogenic proteins like a-synuclein, APP/Ab, and tau/phospho-tau. The thought is that targeting these neurotoxic proteins would help improve motor function in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body Dementia).

Finally, Cerevance’s Solengepras molecule is entering Phase III. It is a novel drug targeted to GPR6. This orphan G-protein-coupled receptor is predominantly expressed in the striatal neurons. By targeting GPR6, which is involved in motor control, “Off times’ would be reduced, and the typical dopaminergic side effects would be eliminated. They describe this drug as a disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson’s. Solengepras could slow disease progression.

“Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress.” Charles Kettering

The Outlook for 2025: With the re-election of Donald Trump as President of the USA, there is a concern that funding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be diminished. Importantly, the NIH funds researchers and their research all over the USA. These research dollars provide crucial funds for not only Parkinson’s but many other diseases and most areas of science. Only by understanding the molecular properties of Parkinson’s can we then develop drugs targeting the appropriate molecular pathway(s) to deter or even defeat Parkinson’s.

My goals in 2025 are to (a) deal with my health issues unrelated to Parkinson’s; (b) re-discover intense exercise that has been missing due to the hip-knee-back problems; (c) continue to focus on advancing issues on Parkinson’s in this blog and other related publications in peer-reviewed Journals; (d) be persistent to resist the pull-of-progression that is always present in Parkinson’s; and (e) remain positive and live with hope.

“All of us every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives.” Steven Spielberg

Thank You: Thank you for your continued support of this blog. Your comments, suggestions, and questions have influenced and contributed to the content of blog posts over the years, which I appreciate. As always, live decisively, be positive, stay focused, remain persistent, and stay you. Happy New Year!

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.” Neil Gaiman

Cover photo Image by wal_172619 from Pixabay, and modified by Frank C. Church