In 1817, James Parkinson expressed a hope in regards to the illness that’s named after him. He thought that sooner or later there can be a discovery and “the progress of the disease may be stopped.”
Now, almost 200 years since Parkinson expressed his hope, and after 4 a long time of unsuccessful medical trials, a bunch of French researchers reviews the primary glimmer of success — a modest slowing of the illness in a one-year examine.
And the drug they used? A so-called GLP-1 receptor agonist, much like the wildly fashionable medication Ozempic, for diabetes, and Wegovy, for weight problems.
As many as half one million Americans have been identified with Parkinson’s illness, a degenerative mind sickness second solely to Alzheimer’s in prevalence.
Symptoms embrace tremors, slowness and stiffness, and issue with steadiness. That can result in issue strolling, speaking and swallowing. Many sufferers develop dementia.
But there are medication and coverings, like deep mind stimulation, that assist, mentioned Dr. David Standaert, a Parkinson’s knowledgeable on the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“You will look and feel much better,” Dr. Standaert mentioned. The downside is that the illness inexorably progresses.
“When you get five or 10 years into Parkinson’s, a lot of problems emerge,” he mentioned.
The new examine gave researchers cautious hope.
It shouldn’t be a slam dunk, however it’s “nibbling at the edges of disease modification,” mentioned Dr. Michael S. Okun, a Parkinson’s illness knowledgeable on the University of Florida who was not concerned within the examine.
Dr. Standaert, who additionally was not concerned within the trial, mentioned it was “a really encouraging step forward.”
“There were so many trials that showed no success,” he added.
Dr. Hyun Joo Chu on the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke mentioned the examine was “very important” however cautioned that it was a Phase 2 examine, designed to check a speculation however not sufficiently big or lengthy sufficient to be definitive.
“There are many many examples of very promising Phase 2 trials,” she mentioned. “People get very excited, and then it doesn’t pan out.”
The paper, revealed Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, concerned 156 folks with early Parkinson’s illness who have been randomly assigned to take the drug — lixisenatide, made by Sanofi — or a placebo and adopted for a 12 months. The trial was funded by the French authorities and Cure Parkinson’s, a British charity.
During that point, Parkinson’s signs like tremor, stiffness, slowness and steadiness worsened in these taking the placebo however not in these taking the drug.
The drug additionally triggered gastrointestinal unwanted side effects like nausea and vomiting in additional than half of the contributors, maybe as a result of the researchers began with the best dose as a substitute of progressively rising it as is completed with GLP-1 medication like Ozempic or Wegovy. In a 3rd of contributors, whose unwanted side effects turned insupportable, the researchers halved their dose.
For the European researchers, led by Dr. Wassilios G. Meissner of the University of Bordeaux and Dr. Olivier Rascol of the University of Toulouse, it made sense to see if a GLP-1 drug might gradual Parkinson’s.
Studies have repeatedly discovered that individuals with Type 2 diabetes are at elevated danger for Parkinson’s illness, Dr. Rascol mentioned. But that elevated danger declines in those that take a GLP-1 drug to deal with their diabetes.
He added that autopsy research of mind tissue from Parkinson’s sufferers had discovered abnormalities associated to insulin resistance, regardless that the sufferers didn’t have diabetes. GLP-1 medication deal with insulin resistance.
Finally, he mentioned, GLP-1 medication can connect to proteins in neurons, so they could have an effect on the mind in several methods.
The French group says it needs to do a bigger and longer examine if it may possibly get funding, and if it may possibly get extra of the drug. At the beginning of this 12 months, Sanofi withdrew the drug within the U.S. and mentioned it has began withdrawing it worldwide. The transfer was made for enterprise causes, an organization spokesman mentioned.
But what about Parkinson’s sufferers who’ve diabetes or weight problems? They are eligible for a GLP-1 drug. Should they take one within the hopes it is going to gradual their Parkinson’s?
“It is reasonable” for them to take the medication, mentioned Dr. Standaert, who wrote an editorial accompanying the examine.
But, he cautioned, they will be unable to inform if the medication have triggered their illness development to gradual as a result of they gained’t know what would have occurred if that they had not taken it.
“We won’t learn anything from it,” he mentioned.
