Australian researchers have taken a promising step towards stopping Parkinson’s disease before symptoms appear, with a simple pill reducing brain inflammation in high-risk patients.
For 69-year-old Seamus Fagan, simple movements reveal the toll of Parkinson’s.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Australian researchers take promising step towards stopping Parkinson’s disease
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
“Slowness in walking, dragging my feet, lost my sense of smell,” he said.
More than 150,000 Australians live with the disease, a number expected to triple by 2050. There is currently no cure for Parkinson’s.
“There hasn’t been many breakthroughs for the Parkinson’s community to stay positive and feel hopeful,” Parkinson’s Australia CEO Olivia Nassaris said.
That could be about to change.
Scientists in Sydney gave an experimental drug, a daily pill, to 41 people with early warning signs like movement during sleep.
After several weeks, scans showed a reduction in brain inflammation in the part that controls movement.
“It’s really exciting because at the moment we only have treatments that deal with symptoms in Parkinson’s, nothing that slows the disease,” Professor Simon Lewis from Macquarie University said.
“Maybe if we can stop those cells dying, it might be that we could stop you ever getting Parkinson’s disease.”
“I wish it was there 10 years ago so I could have known earlier that I had it,” Fagan said.
Reducing inflammation is a promising first step, but longer trials are now needed to show whether this drug can actually prevent Parkinson’s.
“I think it is a breakthrough, but I want to be cautious. So I don’t want to get people’s hopes up too high,” Lewis said.
“It costs $6 million. Now to do the trials we need to do, we need a lot more money.”
At least there’s now some hope for the future.
