The Parkinson disease would affect around 200,000 people in France according to the Pasteur Institute, and 25,000 new cases appear each year. It’s about a chronic degenerative brain disease characterized by the destruction of dopamine neurons and which leads to motor problems, pain, mental health and sleep disorders. THE symptoms the most common are tremors, painful muscle contractions, rigidity, or even language disorders.
This pathology is degenerative, meaning it gets worse over time. It is the second cause of motor disability in adults according to the Pasteur Institute. There is currently no no curative treatment, but therapies and medications capable of reducing symptoms, recalls the World Health Organization (WHO). For example, there are drugs like L-DOPA which can correct the lack of dopamine and alleviate the expression of symptoms, but it is ineffective in stopping their worsening over time. In fact, these treatments do not target the cause of the disease, that is to say the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons, but its consequence, the lack of dopamine.
Parkinson’s: drug used against diabetes could be effective, scientists say
Research into curative treatments for Parkinson’s disease is constantly evolving. A studypublished on April 3, 2024 in the New England Journal of Medicine presented the results of a phase 2 clinical trial of lixisenatide, a drug against diabetesto determine if it could slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease. Phase 2 clinical trials allow the safety and effectiveness of a potential treatment to be tested in a larger number of people and over longer periods than phase 1 trials. Lixisenatide is an agonist of the receptor glucagon-like peptide-1 used for the treatment of diabetes, as well as other better-known drugs such as Ozempic or Wegs.
“Laboratory tests have proven that receptors involved in the mechanisms of diabetes could also play a role in the mechanisms responsible for the loss of certain neurons in the brain“, explained in a press release Olivier Rascol and Wassilios Meissner, two authors of this work, in order to detail the link between Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. To carry out this clinical trial, the scientists carried out, for one year, a study double-blind study against placebo to evaluate the effectiveness of lixisenatide in 156 volunteer patients aged 40 to 76 years, within three years following their diagnostic de Parkinson.
Lixisenatide: it could slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease but more research is needed
At the end of the clinical trial, the researchers noted that the overall motor symptom score of the placebo group worsened, while that of the group treated with lixisenatide remained unchanged, with no sign of worsening. According to them, this shows that the loss of dopamine neurons was lower in patients who received lixisenatide than those who did not, which could indicate that the drug had a “neuroprotective” effect. Nevertheless, adverse effects have also been reported : More than half of people taking the treatment reported significant gastrointestinal problems like nausea and vomiting, and more than a third of them had to reduce their dose of lixisenatide because of these problems.
“These first positive results showing a slowing of the progression of Parkinson’s disease therefore constitute a significant advance in the future management of this disease and are of major importance for public health.“, commented Professors Olivier Rascol and Wassilios Meissner, in order to highlight the interest of these first discoveries. But the scientists insist on the fact that this study is only the first step in a long process before considering lixisenatide as an approved treatment for Parkinson’s. Further research must confirm the effectiveness and safety of the drug for this potential indication and to better assess the benefit/risk ratio for patients. different stages of the disease and over a longer period.
Source :
- Trial of Lixisenatide in Early Parkinson’s Disease – New England Journal of Medicine – 3 avril 2024
- A treatment for diabetes may slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease – Université de Bordeaux – 4 avril 2024
- Parkinson’s disease – World Health Organization
- Parkinson – Institut Pasteur
