Anti-malaria drugs could treat Parkinson's disease: NTU scientists
Two anti-malaria drugs have been found to be a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease by scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States.
The multi-year research project was a partnership between Associate Professor Yoon Ho Sup from NTU’s School of Biological Sciences and Professor Kwang-Soo Kim from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
According to a news release by NTU on Thursday (Jul 16), the team of international scientists discovered that activating Nurr1, a class of proteins found in the brain, protects the brain’s ability to generate dopamine neurons. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that affects motor control and movement of muscles in the body.
Parkinson’s disease disrupts the production of dopamine neurons and progressively causes the loss of motor control.
In laboratory tests, the scientists found that by activating Nurr1, the rats which had Parkinson’s disease appeared to improve in their behaviour and showed no signs of suffering from the disease, said NTU.
Assoc Prof Yoon said the team had screened about 1,000 FDA-approved drugs before they found two anti-malaria drugs which worked - Chloroquine and Amodiaquine.
“Our discovery brings hope for the millions of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, as the drugs that we have found to have worked in the laboratory tests have already been used to treat malaria in patients for decades,” said Assoc Prof Yoon, an expert in drug discovery and design.
“Our research also shows that existing drugs can be repurposed to treat other diseases and once several potential drugs are found, we can redesign them to be more effective in combating their targeted diseases while reducing the side effects,” he added.
Prof Kim, a leading expert in Parkinson’s disease, said the current golden standard of treatment is to replenish the patients’ dopamine levels through medication or by using a surgical method to do deep brain stimulation using electric currents.
“However, these pharmacological and surgical treatments address the patient’s symptoms, such as to improve mobility functions in the early stages of the disease, but the treatments cannot slow down or stop the disease process,” Prof Kim explained.
The scientists aim to design better drugs for the disease by modifying Chloroquine and Amodiaquine. They also aim to carry out clinical trials with these modified drugs.
Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative conditions in Singapore. It affects three out of every 1,000 people aged 50 years and above, according to the news release.
~News courtesy of Channel News Asia~
Two anti-malaria drugs have been found to be a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease by scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States.
The multi-year research project was a partnership between Associate Professor Yoon Ho Sup from NTU’s School of Biological Sciences and Professor Kwang-Soo Kim from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
According to a news release by NTU on Thursday (Jul 16), the team of international scientists discovered that activating Nurr1, a class of proteins found in the brain, protects the brain’s ability to generate dopamine neurons. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that affects motor control and movement of muscles in the body.
Parkinson’s disease disrupts the production of dopamine neurons and progressively causes the loss of motor control.
In laboratory tests, the scientists found that by activating Nurr1, the rats which had Parkinson’s disease appeared to improve in their behaviour and showed no signs of suffering from the disease, said NTU.
Assoc Prof Yoon said the team had screened about 1,000 FDA-approved drugs before they found two anti-malaria drugs which worked - Chloroquine and Amodiaquine.
“Our discovery brings hope for the millions of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, as the drugs that we have found to have worked in the laboratory tests have already been used to treat malaria in patients for decades,” said Assoc Prof Yoon, an expert in drug discovery and design.
“Our research also shows that existing drugs can be repurposed to treat other diseases and once several potential drugs are found, we can redesign them to be more effective in combating their targeted diseases while reducing the side effects,” he added.
Prof Kim, a leading expert in Parkinson’s disease, said the current golden standard of treatment is to replenish the patients’ dopamine levels through medication or by using a surgical method to do deep brain stimulation using electric currents.
“However, these pharmacological and surgical treatments address the patient’s symptoms, such as to improve mobility functions in the early stages of the disease, but the treatments cannot slow down or stop the disease process,” Prof Kim explained.
The scientists aim to design better drugs for the disease by modifying Chloroquine and Amodiaquine. They also aim to carry out clinical trials with these modified drugs.
Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative conditions in Singapore. It affects three out of every 1,000 people aged 50 years and above, according to the news release.
~News courtesy of Channel News Asia~
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