Parkinson’s victims ‘ brought back to life’

Cancer drug’s amazing effect echoes Awakenings film

PATIENTS with advanced Parkinson’s disease have ‘come back to life’ after being given a cancer drug, said scientists.

In dramatic scenes reminiscent of the Robin Williams film Awakenings, in which a drug was used to awaken catatonic patients, one wheelchair-bound patient was able to walk again.

Others regained the ability to speak or were able to enjoy pleasures such as reading a book once more after taking the drug during a study.

Researchers now hope the ‘lifechanging’ drug – a leukaemia treatment called nilotinib – will also work for those with brain conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

The fact the drug has already gone through extensive testing in cancer patients should speed up the approval process for its use treating other conditions.

However, experts have stressed the work is at an early stage – with some questioning whether the results are too good to be true.

More than 125,000 Britons have Parkinson’s, in which the death of the brain cells that produce a chemical called dopamine leads to tremors, stiffness and a gradual slowing of the body.

There is no cure and existing drugs can only provide temporary relief. In contrast, it is thought nilotinib spares the key brain cells from death.

The team from Georgetown University in Washington DC gave nilotinib to 12 men and women who had Parkinson’s disease or a similar condition called dementia with Lewy bodies. The daily dose of the drug for six months had dramatic effects, with some of their worst symptoms being reversed, the Society for Neuroscience’s annual conference heard. Three patients regained the ability to talk, one was able to walk again and another to feed herself once more.

One patient, retired lecturer Alan Hoffman, said: ‘Before nilo- tinib, I did almost nothing around the house. Now, I empty the garbage, unload the dishwasher ... I read a book for the first time in a couple of years. My wife says it is life-changing.’

Lead author Dr Charbel Moussa said: ‘We’ve seen patients at end stages of the disease coming back to life. We had people as stiff as a board at the start of the study who were walking around, sitting down and bending their legs by the end.’

It is thought nilotinib clears away toxic proteins that accumulate in the brain cells of Parkinson’s patients, so freeing them to make dopamine. Researcher Dr Fernando Pagan said the drug seemed to be the first to reverse some of the symptoms – but that larger studies were needed to determine its true impact.

Parkinson’s UK have cautioned that the study’s failure to include untreated patients made it impossible to say how well the drug had really worked, warning that ‘just someone’s belief that they are taking a new drug could produce these results’.

Professor Carl Clarke, a neurologist at Birmingham University, added: ‘It seems too good to be true. I dearly hope I am wrong.’

Further trials are now planned.

‘Too good to be true’