A treatment traditionally used for diabetes could treat motor disorders in patients with Parkinson diseaseaccording to results of a study published in the medical journal The Lancet. Further research is needed to confirm its effectiveness and safety.
Researchers from University College London, the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neuroscience Center (London) in the United Kingdom and the National Institute of Aging in Baltimore in the United States followed 60 people with Parkinson disease who were injected weekly with exenatide, a diabetes drug used for 48 weeks, or a placebo, in addition to their regular medications.
Stop the disease?
Scientists have found that people who use theexenatide had better motor function at 48 weeks when they left treatment. This phenomenon persisted after the 12-week follow-up. In contrast, the placebo group showed a decrease in motor score at 48 and 60 weeks.
These results are satisfying, but the research has not definitively determined whether the drug modifies the disease itself, so the next stage of research will study it better.
“This is a very promising finding, as the drug has the potential to affect the course of the disease itself, not just the symptoms,” said the study’s lead author, Professor Tom Foltynie of the UCL Institute of Neurology. “With existing treatments, we can relieve most symptoms for a few years, but the disease continues to get worse.”
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