This on NBC new tonight:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/821158.asp
This is really sort of the Holy Grail of what we¹re trying to do in
Parkinson¹s disease.¹
DR. TIM GREENAMYRE
Emory University
EXISTING TREATMENTS may ease symptoms of the degenerative
brain disorder but are not believed to affect the underlying disease
process. The new study found evidence that the naturally occurring compound
CoQ10 may help stop the nerve cell death that characterizes Parkinson¹s.
³This is really sort of the Holy Grail of what we¹re trying to do in
Parkinson¹s disease,² said Dr. Tim Greenamyre, a Parkinson¹s scientist at
Emory University who was not involved in the research. ³They¹re on the right
track.²
The study involved just 80 people. Half ate maple-nut flavored wafers
containing various CoQ10 doses, half took a placebo for up to 16 months.
By the study¹s end, the 23 patients on the highest daily doses had 44
percent less decline in mental function, movement and ability to perform
daily living tasks than the placebo group.
Lead author Dr. Clifford Shults at the University of California at
San Diego and colleagues cautioned that there is not enough proof to
recommend that Parkinson¹s patients use the supplements, which are sold over
the counter as antioxidants that purportedly help improve heart function.
But the findings are ³tremendously encouraging,² Shults said. ³We
really need to do a definitive study² to confirm the findings.
The study appears in October¹s Archives of Neurology.
Parkinson¹s is a progressive disorder that affects about 500,000
Americans. It results from degeneration of nerve cells that produce a
neurotransmitter called dopamine, which is needed to control muscle
activity.
Symptoms include tremors, stiffness and a shuffling gait. Standard
treatment includes the drug levodopa, which is converted into dopamine in
the brain.
Parkinson¹s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system that affects
more than 1 million Americans.
Click on a question for more information on the condition.Age is one of the
main risk factors for Parkinson's disease. The average age of onset is in
the mid-50s, though up to 10 percent of patients develop symptoms before the
age of 40. Heredity also appears to play a role recent research shows that
people with a close relative with the disease have a three times greater
risk of developing it themselves. In addition, people who are exposed to
herbicides and pesticides have been shown to have an increased risk. Also,
men are affected slightly more often than women.Doctors don¹t know exactly
what triggers the disease, but they do know that Parkinson¹s results in the
degeneration of cells in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra.
This region produces dopamine, a substance that allows people to move
normally. People with Parkinson¹s have a shortage of dopamine.The hallmark
symptoms are tremors, rigidity, slowness of movement and postural
instability. The earliest signs are tremors and slowness of movement that
are usually worse on one side of the body than the other. As the disease
progresses, it causes rigidity and then later on leads to instability of
stance and posture.Mental function is usually not affected in early
Parkinson¹s but there can be cognitive deterioration as the disease
progresses. Up to 25 percent of patients with advanced disease experience
some level of mental impairment, such as memory loss and poor
concentration.It really varies from person to person. But Parkinson¹s
usually advances more slowly in younger people than the elderly. Still, the
rate of progression is variable and impossible to predict.There is no drug
that can prevent cell loss in the substantia nigra. Doctors can only treat
the symptoms with a number of drugs:
Levodopa
Carbidopa combined with levodopa (Sinemet)
Symmetrel (amantadine hydrochloride)
Anticholinergics (trihexyphenidyl, benztropine mesylate, procyclidine,
etc.)
Selegiline or deprenyl (Eldepryl)
Dopamine agonists (bromocriptine, pergolide, pramipexole and
andropinirole)
COMT inhibitors (tolcapone, entacapone, etc.) Also available for some
Parkinson¹s patients are surgical interventions including brain tissue
transplants, using an electrode to destroy the cells that cause unwanted
movements and deep brain stimulation with a pacemaker-like device.
Source: Dr. Ali Samii, a neurologist at the University of Washington in
Seattle; Parkinson¹s Disease Foundation
Printable version
Research has suggested that energy-supplying structures inside cells
called mitochondria may be impaired in Parkinson¹s disease. CoQ10, a
compound made in the body, is believed to help mitochondria function, and
previous research by Shults and others found that CoQ10 levels were reduced
in Parkinson¹s patients. They theorized that CoQ10 supplements might help
preserve nerve cell function.
Patients studied had early-stage Parkinson¹s and took a placebo or
CoQ10 in doses of 300 milligrams, 600 mgs or 1,200 mgs daily. Their symptoms
were evaluated for up to 16 months. By the eighth month, the 23 patients on
the highest dose showed significantly less impairment than the others.
Shults said if CoQ10 had merely eased symptoms, the
differences probably would have appeared early on, which did not happen.
Side effects, including back pain, headaches and dizziness, were
mostly mild.
The results indicate that follow-up research at perhaps even higher
doses should proceed ³pretty aggressively,² said Dr. Bernard Ravina of the
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which funded the
study.
© 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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