Light Therapy Intervention in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease

The study looks to investigate the effects that light therapy delivered to the frontal cortex could have on Parkinson's disease related symptoms ( both cognitive and motor). The therapy is a non invasive technique that deliverers low level wavelength light to the front part of the head for 12 minutes. for this study the therapy will be done 3 times a week for 6 weeks. To measure the potential effects on the therapy in Parkinson symptoms, we will do a set of cognitive and motor test before and after the intervention to measure any changes as well as control for any potential markers such as age, sex, disease level, medication and exercise.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Parkinson Disease
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Red Light (PDT); Device: Placebo

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 20
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Sara Penuela, PhD student; Phone Number: 9739740120; Email: penuelas@udel.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Roxana Burciu, PhD, Associative Professor; Email: rgburciu@udel.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Delaware
    • Newark, Delaware, United States, 19711
      • Recruiting
      • University of Delaware STAR Tower
      • Principal Investigator: John Jeka, PhD
      • Contact: Sara Penuela, PhD Student; Phone Number: 973-974-0120; Email: penuelas@udel.edu
      • Contact: John Jeka, PdD; Email: jjeka@udel.edu
      • Sub-Investigator: sara Penuela, PhD student
      • Principal Investigator: Roxana Burciu, PhD
      • Principal Investigator: Thomas Buckley, PhED

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of Parkinson disease

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Participants who are unable to comply with study visit/testing requirements (e.g.

   participants who cannot go off PD medication for the pre-, post-, and 3-month assessments).

2. Participants who are unable to provide consent.
3. Participants with a Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) device.
4. Participants who have a history of a psychiatric disorder
5. Participants with PD who have other concurrent movement/neurological conditions, including dystonia, dementia, epilepsy etc.

6. Participants with a clinical diagnosis of PD that is not considered primary (e.g.

   vascular parkinsonism) or participants where an atypical form of parkinsonism is suspected (e.g., progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy).

7. Participants with a history of cancer (whether treated with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy or not).
8. Participants with a history of a recent concussion or any facial, neck, or head injury within the last 6 months. UD IRB Approved: 03/12/2025 IRBNet ID#: 2277769-2 I/C from Rev. 01/2024 Page 3 of 10 Participant's Initial's ________
9. Known injury or disease that might interfere with motor function in the proposed experiments (e.g., stroke, traumatic brain injury, extrapyramidal dysfunction, neuromuscular disease, orthopedic problems that impair movement).
10. Participants with a history of photosensitivity.
11. Participants who are not able to walk unassisted for 2 minutes

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Light therapy grpup	Device: Red Light (PDT); The intervention is a non invasive and safe practice. By delivering low level wavelength red light to the front part of the head, it can increase blood flow in the area treated and improve functioning of the associated regions, potentially improving symptoms.
Sham Comparator: placebo light therapy	Device: Placebo; The intervention is a non invasive and safe practice. Participants will be wearing a helmet that delivered low level light therapy to the brain, and use it for the same amount of time as the treatment group. These participants will however, not receive the actual light and receive a placebo, so the helmet will be off. This is done to control of any potential positive effects of the therapy.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
cognitive symptom improvement	The investigators want to asses whether light therapy has a positive effect on reducing the cognitive symptoms related with PD, such as loss of short term memory, attention and processing speed. This will be measured using a set of tests and questioners (i.e MoCa, NIH cognitive battery, brief Test of attention (BTA)). Performance on these tests and questioners, which measure diverse aspects of cognition, will be compared before and after the intervention to establish if there is a positive effect of the therapy on any aspect of cognition. The intervention will last a total of 6 weeks right after the completion of the pre intervention assessment. after the completion of the 6 weeks of intervention therapy, the pre test will be conducted and cognitive measure changes will be recorded.	Done immediately before (pre test) and after (post test) intervention lasting about 1 hour. The intervention lasts about 6 weeks, so in between the pre and post tests there will be about a 6 week period.
motor symptoms	The investigators want to asses whether light therapy has a positive effect on reducing the motor symptoms related with PD, such as changes in gait, tremors, and slowing of movement. This will be measured using a set of tests and questioners (i.e MDSUPDRS, Dual task walking, APDM motion capture over a set of tests). Performance on these tests and questioners, which measure diverse aspects of motor capabilities, will be compared before (pre test) and after (post tests) the intervention to establish if there is a positive effect of the therapy on any aspect of motor control and movement. The intervention will last a total of 6 weeks, done right after the completion of the pre intervention assessment. after the completion of the 6 weeks of intervention therapy, the pre test will be conducted and any changes in motor measures will be recorded.	Done immediately before (pre test) and after(post test) intervention lasting about 1 hour. The intervention lasts 6 weeks, so there is about a 6 week period in between the two sessions ( pre and post)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Delaware
• Collaborators: NeuroThera

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): April 4, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): January 29, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 25, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 31, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): April 8, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 8, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 31, 2025
• Last Verified: February 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Synucleinopathies; Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Movement Disorders; Parkinsonian Disorders; Basal Ganglia Diseases; Parkinson Disease
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2277769

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: Yes