U.S. study hopes to find ‘Aspirin of Parkinson’s’
Published: February 25, 2006
An antibiotic and a muscle-related compound are leading candidates for a major U.S. government study on whether certain compounds might slow the worsening of Parkinson’s disease.
A pilot study, unveiled yesterday, suggests the two — the antibiotic minocycline and creatine, a substance produced in muscle tissue — may have some benefit.
It’s far too early for patients to seek the pills, stressed Dr. Diane Murphy, who oversees Parkinson’s research at the (U.S.) National Institutes of Health, which funded the work.
But in the study of 200 patients in the earliest stages of the disease — they didn’t yet require medication — those who took either of the two pills didn’t seem to decline quite as rapidly as those given a dummy pill, scientists said yesterday at the World Parkinson Congress.
The compounds are thought to lessen cellular stress or fight inflammation that may damage cells.
Parkinson’s disease gradually destroys brain cells that produce dopamine, a chemical crucial for the cellular communication that controls muscle movement.
Standard treatments are to replace lost dopamine with the drug levodopa and a brain implant to control tremors. Both work for a while, but can’t stop the disease’s march.
So NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is on a hunt for drugs that might protect patients’ remaining dopamine-producing cells, a so-called neuroprotector. The holy grail would be a simple, easy-to-take pill that would lower the risk of worsening Parkinson’s much like an Aspirin a day can lower risk of heart attacks.
“We’re looking for the Aspirin of Parkinson’s disease,” is how Murphy puts it. “We don’t have a drug like that right now and we don’t know of such a drug,” she cautions.
That’s where the pilot study comes in. NIH asked Parkinson’s specialists for a list of potential neuroprotective compounds — substances that could enter the brain and seemed promising in animal studies. They settled on four to pilot-test. The minocycline and creatine results are first in.
Now being analysed is a similar study on the dietary supplement coenzyme Q-10 or CoQ10 and an experimental drug thought to help repair damaged nerves.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: