Treat Parkinson’s while you sleep: Ohio firm gets patent for brain stimulation system

VALLEY VIEW, Ohio — Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies has received allowance of claims from the U.S. Patent Office for an application covering their system and method of stimulating the brain during sleep to treat movement disorder symptoms.

The claims cover a system and method including a wearable apparatus to position an array of electrodes on the surface of the scalp, provide low dose stimulation to the brain using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and delivering this stimulation during different stages of sleep.

Parkinson’s treatment

While deep brain stimulation has shown efficacy for treating movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, non-invasive technologies such as tDCS may provide additional options for patients.

Delivering stimulation therapy during sleep may target brain states likely to improve motor symptoms, as well as minimize patient burden since the therapy would occur while they are sleeping.

“While most of our previous work has focused on diagnostics for Parkinson’s disease, we also recognize new opportunities for therapy could have a significant impact on patient quality of life.” said Dustin Heldman, PhD, principal investigator and biomedical research manager.

Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies has been committed to the commercialization of its Kinesia medical technology platforms.

“There is evidence that treating the brain with transcranial direct current stimulation using a non-invasive system can improve Parkinson’s symptoms,” Heldman said. “While current approaches aim to target the location of stimulation to the brain, this approach is targeting the timing of stimulation, by delivering it during sleep.”

An ongoing Phase I clinical study is evaluating efficacy of the technology in patients.