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Neurological diseases cause a massive burden, which will increase as populations age. Rapid advances in our understanding of disease mechanisms must be translated into human benefits. We cannot stop once technologies have been developed, but must ensure that evidence and pipelines are in place for their implementation to reduce burden and inequalities.
The past 5–10 years have seen rapid advances in digital sensors and imaging-based technologies for the diagnosis of neurological conditions. However, the majority of these technologies are in the early stages of development — now is the time to consider how we validate these tools and safely integrate them into clinical practice.
A growing number of clinical practice guidelines are being developed for neurological diseases, and they have the potential to benefit patients, clinicians, policymakers and payers. However, the effectiveness of these guidelines has not been evaluated, so we do not yet know whether they improve patient outcomes in a real-world setting.
Effective translation of evidence from clinical trials into clinical practice requires the enrolment of diverse, representative trial populations. However, this diversity is still often lacking, with negative clinical implications for under-served groups. Changes are needed to research practices and the broader research landscape to correct this problem.
Low-resource settings lag behind the rest of the world in achieving good health, in part owing to poor translation of clinical evidence into practice. Focusing on neurological disorders — in particular, stroke — this Comment identifies barriers to translation at the individual, provider and health systems levels and proposes theory-driven mitigating solutions.
A new study has shown that a modulator of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 can reverse synapse loss in mouse models of Alzheimer disease and has the potential to be developed as a disease-modifying treatment for this condition.
In this Review, Diener et al. discuss the concept of embolic stroke of undetermined source, proposing updates to the criteria and diagnostic algorithm in light of evidence gathered since the concept was first introduced.
In this Review, Oh and Bar-Or provide an overview of selected emerging therapies for multiple sclerosis with the potential to limit non-relapsing, progressive disease injury and to promote tissue repair, thereby addressing crucial unmet therapeutic needs.
The prominence of gastrointestinal dysfunction among the non-motor features of Parkinson disease (PD) indicates a close bidirectional link between the brain and the gut. This Review discusses the proposed roles of gut-related factors in PD development, progression and treatment responses, and as therapeutic targets.
In this Perspective, the authors present their vision for a closed-loop system for automatic symptom monitoring and levodopa administration in individuals with Parkinson disease. The system would capitalize on the ongoing advances in wearable sensor technology, drug delivery systems and machine learning.
