Investigator:
Melissa Nirenberg, MD, PhD
Name of Institution:
Bronx Veterans Medical Research Foundation, Inc
Project Title:
Parkinson’s disease phenotype in veterans with military toxin exposure
Investigator Bio:
Dr. Melissa J. Nirenberg is a Professor of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Co-Director of the VA Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Center (PADRECC) Associated Site at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Her clinical and research interests include non-motor features of Parkinson’s disease (PD); behavioral complications of dopaminergic therapy; clinical and neuropathological features of PD related to traumatic brain injury (TBI); and the care of veterans with PD and other movement disorders.
Dr. Nirenberg pursued her undergraduate education at Yale University, graduating magna cum laude with distinction in English. She was subsequently awarded an MD/PhD from Weill Cornell, with her PhD focused on the neuroanatomy of dopamine containing cells in the pathways affected in PD. After medical school, Dr. Nirenberg completed a residency in Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by a fellowship in Movement Disorders at Columbia University. She is currently the site Principal Investigator (PI) for the Veterans Parkinson’s Disease Genetics Initiative (Vet-PD) study, contributing data and samples to the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Project (GP2). She is also Clinical Co-Director of the Neuropathology Brain Bank at Mount Sinai, studying post-mortem changes associated with PD in different populations.
Objective:
To identify the clinical features of PD in veterans with environmental exposures that are known PD risk factors.
Background:
Very little is known about the clinical phenotype of PD in veterans with military exposure to toxins such as Agent Orange and Camp Lejeune water.
Methods/Design:
Participants will be recruited from the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs (VA) Movement Disorders Clinic. Data will be collected about the subjects’ demographic features; military and non-military environmental toxin exposure (including Agent Orange and Camp Lejeune water); medical history; medication use; family history; and military history. Detailed assessments will be performed to characterize PD symptoms, including motor movement symptoms, non-motor symptoms (such as cognitive problems, depression, and low blood pressure with standing), and responses to PD medications. Using statistical analysis, we will look at clinical factors associated with PD in veterans with versus without specific military toxin exposures.
Relevance to Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease:
Determining the clinical features of PD related to these environmental exposures will help us to diagnose PD in its earliest stages, optimize treatments, and identify targeted therapies for veterans with PD.