FDOPA PET and Nutritional Support in Parkinson's Disease

The overall goal of this study will be to further our understanding of how N Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) can help to support dopaminergic function in patients with Parkinson\'s disease (PD). We plan to use pre and post Positron emission tomography magnetic resonance imaging (PET-MRI) with \[F-18\] Fluorodopa (FDOPA) to measure dopamine function, and neurological measures to assess clinical symptoms, in patients with PD who are given oral capsules plus IV infusions of NAC in addition to standard of care for PD for 6 ±3 months in an open label cross over design. Serum measures of NAC concentrations, magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to measure inflammatory and oxidative stress markers, may be conducted.