Diabetes Drug Glitazones May Prevent Parkinson’s Disease

It has been found by scientists that fewer people developed Parkinson’s in the group taking glitazone; however, the drug is not effective for long period. They compared data from 44,597 individuals that were prescribed to take glitazone pills with 120,373 patients taking other treatments for diabetes.

One element of the pathway, a cellular receptor molecule known as PPAR gamma that triggers a reaction to certain chemicals, has many functions not well understood in humans.

The study involved analysis of the health records of more than 160,000 people in the United Kingdom who were taking diabetes treatments and were not diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the beginning of the study. Patients’ records were then tracked from 1999, when they were introduced to the glitazone treatments, to 2013 in order to see how many were subsequently diagnosed with Parkinson’s during this time.

Two diabetes drugs that have been shelved off the market due to side effects are now offering hope in the battle against Parkinson’s disease, a new study suggests.

Dr. Ruth Brauer, another researcher, also believes that her team’s findings may open doors for now sparse treatments for Parkinson’s.

Dr Ian Douglas, lead researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “We often hear about negative side-effects associated with medications, but sometimes there can also be unintended beneficial effects”.

He added that their findings have come up with unique evidence, so they are looking forward to do further investigation into potential drug treatments for the condition. In addition, they found that this risk reduction was only associated with the current users of glitazones, and not with those who had taken the drug in the past but stopped.

Dr Arthur Roach, director of research and development at the charity Parkinson’s United Kingdom, said: ” We already know a lot about the effects that glitazone drugs, used to treat diabetes, have on brain cells that are damaged in Parkinson’s.

The study was funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

The latest study focuses exclusively on people with diabetes who did not have Parkinson’s disease at the beginning of the project.