Drug hope in Parkinson’s treatment

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

Having used the same drug to also delay and reverse the progression of motor neurone disease in early trials, the discovery fuels hope of treating the cause of the crippling degenerative conditions, rather than just their symptoms.

Results of a Royal Melbourne Hospital-led trial among 19 patients, unveiled at the World Congress of Parkinson’s disease in Canada, show the drug — CuATSM — halted the progression of their Parkinson’s 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.