scholarly journals Current Therapies in Clinical Trials of Parkinson’s Disease: A 2021 Update

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 717
Author(s):  
E. Maruthi Prasad ◽  
Shih-Ya Hung

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that currently has no cure, but treatments are available to improve PD symptoms and maintain quality of life. In 2020, about 10 million people worldwide were living with PD. In 1970, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the drug levodopa as a dopamine replacement to manage PD motor symptoms; levodopa-carbidopa combination became commercialized in 1975. After over 50 years of use, levodopa is still the gold standard for PD treatment. Unfortunately, levodopa therapy-induced dyskinesia and OFF symptoms remain unresolved. Therefore, we urgently need to analyze each current clinical trial’s status and therapeutic strategy to discover new therapeutic approaches for PD treatment. We surveyed 293 registered clinical trials on ClinicalTrials.gov from 2008 to 16 June 2021. After excluded levodopa/carbidopa derivative add-on therapies, we identified 47 trials as PD treatment drugs or therapies. Among them, 19 trials are in phase I (41%), 25 trials are in phase II (53%), and 3 trials are in phase III (6%). The three phase-III trials use embryonic dopamine cell implant, 5-HT1A receptor agonist (sarizotan), and adenosine A2A receptor antagonist (caffeine). The therapeutic strategy of each trial shows 29, 5, 1, 5, 5, and 2 trials use small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, plasma therapy, cell therapy, gene therapy, and herbal extract, respectively. Additionally, we discuss the most potent drug or therapy among these trials. By systematically updating the current trial status and analyzing the therapeutic strategies, we hope this review can provide new ideas and insights for PD therapy development.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saya R Dennis ◽  
Tanya Simuni ◽  
Yuan Luo

Parkinson's Disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the United States, and is characterized by a largely irreversible worsening of motor and non-motor symptoms as the disease progresses. A prominent characteristic of the disease is its high heterogeneity in manifestation as well as the progression rate. For sporadic Parkinson's Disease, which comprises ~90% of all diagnoses, the relationship between the patient genome and disease onset or progression subtype remains largely elusive. Machine learning algorithms are increasingly adopted to study the genomics of diseases due to their ability to capture patterns within the vast feature space of the human genome that might be contributing to the phenotype of interest. In our study, we develop two machine learning models that predict the onset as well as the progression subtype of Parkinson's Disease based on subjects' germline mutations. Our best models achieved an ROC of 0.77 and 0.61 for disease onset and subtype prediction, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, our models present state-of-the-art prediction performances of PD onset and subtype solely based on the subjects' germline variants. The genes with high importance in our best-performing models were enriched for several canonical pathways related to signaling, immune system, and protein modifications, all of which have been previously associated with PD symptoms or pathogenesis. These high-importance gene sets provide us with promising candidate genes for future biomedical and clinical research.


Author(s):  
Martin J. Kelly ◽  
Gerard W. O'Keeffe ◽  
Aideen M. Sullivan

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterised by the progressive loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons, which causes motor impairments. Current treatments involve dopamine replacement to address the disease symptoms rather than its cause. Factors that promote the survival of dopaminergic neurons have been proposed as novel therapies for PD. Several dopaminergic neurotrophic factors (NTFs) have been examined for their ability to protect and/or restore degenerating dopaminergic neurons, both in animal models and in clinical trials. These include glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, neurturin, cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor and growth/differentiation factor 5. Delivery of these NTFs via injection or infusion to the brain raises several practical problems. A new delivery approach for NTFs involves the use of recombinant viral vectors to enable long-term expression of these factors in brain cells. Vectors used include those based on adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses and lentiviruses. Here we review progress to date on the potential of each of these four NTFs as novel therapeutic strategies for PD, as well as the challenges that have arisen, from pre-clinical analysis to clinical trials. We conclude by discussing recently-developed approaches to optimise the delivery of NTF-carrying viral vectors to the brain.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Alexandre Vallée ◽  
Jean-Noël Vallée ◽  
Yves Lecarpentier

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the major neurodegenerative diseases (ND) which presents a progressive neurodegeneration characterized by loss of dopamine in the substantia nigra pars compacta. It is well known that oxidative stress, inflammation and glutamatergic pathway play key roles in the development of PD. However, therapies remain uncertain and research for new treatment is mandatory. This review focuses on the potential effects of lithium, as a potential therapeutic strategy, on PD and some of the presumed mechanisms by which lithium provides its benefit properties. Lithium medication downregulates GSK-3beta, the main inhibitor of the WNT/β-catenin pathway. The stimulation of the WNT/β-catenin could be associated with the control of oxidative stress, inflammation, and glutamatergic pathway. Future prospective clinical trials could focus on lithium and its different and multiple interactions in PD.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Reichmann ◽  
Pablo Martínez Martin ◽  
Fabrizio Stocchi ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) used to be considered a secondary parameter in clinical trials of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and in routine clinical practice, but is now increasingly recognised as an important measure of patient status. A number of studies have shown that the severity of PD is strongly associated with poor HRQoL scores and that measuring HRQoL domains provides a valuable assessment of overall patient status. Current guidelines from the Movement Disorder Society Task Force and the European Parkinson’s Disease Association recommend the use of HRQoL measures in the diagnosis and monitoring of patients. The European Medicines Agency PD Guidelines, however, do not yet recommend the use of such indirect endpoints in clinical trials. A series of phase III and post-marketing studies evaluating the selective monoamine oxidase type B inhibitor, rasagiline in PD, including between 404 and 1,176 patients, showed that treatment with rasagiline leads to significant improvements in HRQoL parameters such as the Parkinson’s Disease Quality of Life questionnaire (PDQUALIF), the 39-Item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), the PDQ-8 and other HRQoL-related parameters. Other clinical trials have shown significant improvements in parameters including: Short-Form-36, EuroQuol 5D, PDQUALIF, PDQ-39 and HRQoL-related parameters in PD patients treated with dopamine agonists, selegiline, tocopherol or levodopa/carbidopa/entacapone or levodopa/carbidopa combinations. Experience gained with these instruments is likely to increase the attention paid to HRQoL in PD assessment and could improve diagnosis and monitoring of PD and may ultimately improve patient outcomes.


Cells ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Vilaça-Faria ◽  
António J. Salgado ◽  
Fábio G. Teixeira

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder worldwide. Clinically, it is characterized by severe motor complications caused by a progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons (DAn) and dopamine loss. Current treatment is focused on mitigating the symptoms through administration of levodopa, rather than on preventing DAn damage. Therefore, the use and development of neuroprotective/disease-modifying strategies is an absolute need, which can lead to promising gains on PD translational research. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)–derived exosomes have been proposed as a promising therapeutic tool, since it has been demonstrated that they can act as biological nanoparticles with beneficial effects in different pathological conditions, including PD. Thus, considering their potential protective action in lesioned sites, MSCs-derived exosomes might also be active modulators of the neuroregeneration processes, opening a door for their future use as therapeutical strategies in human clinical trials. Therefore, in this review, we analyze the current understanding of MSCs-derived exosomes as a new possible therapeutic strategy for PD, by providing an overview about the potential role of miRNAs in the cellular and molecular basis of PD.


Antioxidants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han-A Park ◽  
Amy C. Ellis

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the depletion of dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia, the movement center of the brain. Approximately 60,000 people are diagnosed with PD in the United States each year. Although the direct cause of PD can vary, accumulation of oxidative stress-induced neuronal damage due to increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or impaired intracellular antioxidant defenses invariably occurs at the cellular levels. Pharmaceuticals such as dopaminergic prodrugs and agonists can alleviate some of the symptoms of PD. Currently, however, there is no treatment to halt the progression of PD pathology. Due to the nature of PD, a long and progressive neurodegenerative process, strategies to prevent or delay PD pathology may be well suited to lifestyle changes like dietary modification with antioxidant-rich foods to improve intracellular redox homeostasis. In this review, we discuss cellular and genetic factors that increase oxidative stress in PD. We also discuss neuroprotective roles of dietary antioxidants including vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids, selenium, and polyphenols along with their potential mechanisms to alleviate PD pathology.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Zinger ◽  
Carlos Barcia ◽  
Maria Trinidad Herrero ◽  
Gilles J. Guillemin

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder characterised by loss of dopaminergic neurons and localized neuroinflammation occurring in the midbrain several years before the actual onset of symptoms. Activated microglia themselves release a large number of inflammatory mediators thus perpetuating neuroinflammation and neurotoxicity. The Kynurenine pathway (KP), the main catabolic pathway for tryptophan, is one of the major regulators of the immune response and may also be implicated in the inflammatory response in parkinsonism. The KP generates several neuroactive compounds and therefore has either a neurotoxic or neuroprotective effect. Several of these molecules produced by microglia can activate the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-signalling pathway, leading to an excitotoxic response. Previous studies have shown that NMDA antagonists can ease symptoms and exert a neuroprotective effect in PD bothin vivoandin vitro. There are to date several lines of evidence linking some of the KP intermediates and the neuropathogenesis of PD. Moreover, it is likely that pharmacological modulation of the KP will represent a new therapeutic strategy for PD.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Depanjan Sarkar ◽  
Drupad Trivedi ◽  
Eleanor Sinclair ◽  
Sze Hway Lim ◽  
Caitlin Walton-Doyle ◽  
...  

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder for which identification of robust biomarkers to complement clinical PD diagnosis would accelerate treatment options and help to stratify disease progression. Here we demonstrate the use of paper spray ionisation coupled with ion mobility mass spectrometry (PSI IM-MS) to determine diagnostic molecular features of PD in sebum. PSI IM-MS was performed directly from skin swabs, collected from 34 people with PD and 30 matched control subjects as a training set and a further 91 samples from 5 different collection sites as a validation set. PSI IM-MS elucidates ~ 4200 features from each individual and we report two classes of lipids (namely phosphatidylcholine and cardiolipin) that differ significantly in the sebum of people with PD. Putative metabolite annotations are obtained using tandem mass spectrometry experiments combined with accurate mass measurements. Sample preparation and PSI IM-MS analysis and diagnosis can be performed ~5 minutes per sample offering a new route to for rapid and inexpensive confirmatory diagnosis of this disease.


2019 ◽  
pp. 158-173

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by a dopamine deficiency that presents with motor symptoms. Visual disorders can occur concomitantly but are frequently overlooked. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been an effective treatment to improve tremors, stiffness and overall mobility, but little is known about its effects on the visual system. Case Report: A 75-year-old Caucasian male with PD presented with longstanding binocular diplopia. On baseline examination, the best-corrected visual acuity was 20/25 in each eye. On observation, he had noticeable tremors with an unsteady gait. Distance alternating cover test showed exophoria with a right hyperphoria. Near alternating cover test revealed a significantly larger exophoria accompanied by a reduced near point of convergence. Additional testing with a 24-2 Humphrey visual field and optical coherence tomography (OCT) of the nerve and macula were unremarkable. The patient underwent DBS implantation five weeks after initial examination, and the device was activated four weeks thereafter. At follow up, the patient still complained of intermittent diplopia. There was no significant change in the manifest refraction or prism correction. On observation, the patient had remarkably improved tremors with a steady gait. All parameters measured were unchanged. The patient was evaluated again seven months after device activation. Although vergence ranges at all distances were improved, the patient was still symptomatic for intermittent diplopia. OCT scans of the optic nerve showed borderline but symmetric thinning in each eye. All other parameters measured were unchanged. Conclusion: The case found no significant changes on ophthalmic examination after DBS implantation and activation in a patient with PD. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no other cases in the literature that investigated the effects of DBS on the visual system pathway in a patient with PD before and after DBS implantation and activation.


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