Nortriptyline. The SLOW pace of medicine.

[sunvox]

Here is yet another therapeutic that holds some promise for neurodegenerative disorders, but the pace of research is astoundingly slow.

msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/...

That study and article are just coming out now. Here's the sad part. First study 2007:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/176...

Then 2012:

movementdisorders.org/MDS-F...

But doctors are just catching up now:

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

Regardless, what is relevant to ataxia patients is this - Nortriptyline is an FDA approved anti-depressant. The study in 2012 of over 2000 Parkinson's patients showed people who took nortiptyline had delayed onset of their disease. The most recent study shows that the way this molecule works is by blocking proteins from "folding". That finding is relevant to many ataxias.

The list of molecules currently out there that MAY have some benefit is long and growing longer, but the pace of research is insanely slow. My guess is there is already a cocktail of available drugs that could halt or slow the progression of many ataxias, but we won't likely see the necessary research for many years to come.

What we need is a global organization that supports the research needs of ataxic patients without a bias towards one research angle.