Scientists in London are testing the effectiveness of a drug that is currently used to treat ailments of the liver, to slow down the progression of Parkinson’s disease. After testing around 2000 drugs, researchers identified ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) as the most promising drug to treat mitochondrial function in Parkinson’s disease. With 30 years of successfully treating liver disease, now they are assessing the safety and tolerability of the drug in Parkinson’s disease. Scientists are hoping that the drug will help slow down the progression of the disease.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological condition that severely affects mobility, walking, running, and muscle coordination. If worsened, it may also result in abnormal bowel functioning and memory loss, thus reducing the quality of life of the patients, which may in turn lead to depression. All of this is observed mainly due to the loss of dopamine containing nerve cells in the area of the brain that controls movement and coordination. These cells go dead because the mitochondria, or battery of the cells, start malfunctioning.
Based on all these findings, scientists have decided to try out if the drug UDCA can reduce the progression of Parkinson’s disease. After almost a decade of research, the researchers are launching the first clinical trial of UDCA in Parkinson’s disease patients to check if it is safe and tolerable. If this trial is successful, it can lead to bigger studies to firmly establish the effectiveness of the treatment to slow down the progression of Parkinson’s disease. In the early stages of the disease, patients have tended to respond very well to symptomatic medication. But, scientists are now trying to find a solution that can slow down the progression of Parkinson’s even after the first few years of diagnosis. This will make it a permanent solution that can help improve the quality of life of patients for longer.
The effectiveness of this drug is to be assessed with 31P MRI-Spectroscopy. By using this assessment, researchers will be able to quantify the function of mitochondria to examine if the drug successfully normalizes the function of the brain tissue affected in Parkinson’s disease. Specially designed sensors will be used to measure the effect of the UDCA drug on a patient’s motor impairment. The bio-sensors will be worn by patients at the beginning and end of the trial, which will give more effective results than using a clinical scale that may not be objective. Repeat sensor-based objective measurement of motor impairment throughout the trial may also tell researchers whether the UDCA drug might have the potential to slow down the progression of Parkinson’s disease or not.
Such trials can help researchers find variety of treatments for a wide range of diseases. If you are interested in helping your country find such new and effective treatments for both new and old ailments, you should take up clinical research as your career option. And for this, you can enroll yourself with Avigna Clinical Research Institute and take up the professional clinical research diploma courses in Bangalore available here that you can learn online anytime and from anywhere.
