Parkinson’s disease drug breakthrough

PRELIMINARY trials of a drug to treat Parkinson’s disease has produced encouraging results, according to a report released yesterday.

After a year of treatment, five sufferers showed marked improvements in their mobility with no significant side effects.

Scientists working on the hormone, glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), said it could be the most important treatment breakthrough in the disease since the discovery of L-dopa, the drug most commonly used to help patients.

The drug could be widely available within the next five to 10 years, say the researchers.

However, doctors warn that more comprehensive studies are needed to determine the drug's efficacy. More than 6,000 people suffer from Parkinson's in Ireland. The Parkinson's Association of Ireland estimate one in every 100 people over the age of 65 years will develop the disease.

The hormone first showed promise in animal models of Parkinson's disease, but a subsequent study in human patients ended in failure. In that trial, the large doses of the drug were injected into the cerebro-spinal fluid each month.

However, doctors at Frenchay Hospital's Institute of Neurosciences in Bristol succeeded by using a more subtle method of delivering the drug a pump delivering tiny amounts of GDNF continuously to the brain.

After 12 months, the five patients improved by almost 40% on a standard scale measuring motor abilities.

Parkinson's symptoms are caused by the progressive destruction of cells producing the brain messaging chemical, dopamine. Researchers believe GDNF may halt the decline or even restore dopamine-producing cells.

Frenchay Hospital's Dr Peter Heywood is anxious not to raise hopes, citing the small number of patients and lack of a control group.

The findings are published in the journal, Nature Medicine.

Neurosurgeon Steven Gill, who coordinated the research, said the patients, all of whom had advanced Parkinson's, had shown considerable improvements: "We are seeing this as a pretty major step. It needs to be refined, but we have a chance to reverse the progress of Parkinson's."

Although the disease usually happens to people over age 50, younger people are not immune. Sufferers include actor Michael J Fox who contracted the disease in his 30's.