Drug fuels hope for Parkinson’s sufferers

DOCTORS have been able to stop and even wind back the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease using a new drug developed by Melbourne scientists.

The discovery fuels hope of treating the cause of the crippling degenerative condition, rather than just their symptoms.

Results of a Royal Melbourne Hospital-led trial among 19 patients announced at the World Congress of Parkinson’s Disease in Canada show the drug, CuATSM, halted the progression of the disease and significantly lessened the severity of symptoms.

Developed over the past 15 years by scientists at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and the University of Melbourne, the copper-delivery capsule could be a significant advance in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease if the result can be replicated in larger studies, the RMH’s Dr Andrew Evans said.

“It would suggest that it may well be taking the neurons that are destined to die and turning around the process, giving some symptom benefit as well as slowing the progress of the disease,” Dr Evans said.

“We hope that by getting people early ... we are going to save those neurons and prevent that deterioration that we see in the course of the disease.

“The impact has been that they feel better, but also it gives them some hope for the future that they are not going to decline in the same way that most patients will do.”

The same drug has also delayed and reversed the progression of motor neurone disease in early trials.