A treatment that could slow or stop Parkinson’s disease today took one step closer to pharmacy shelves. The Austrian biotech AFFiRiS AG announced positive results of its Phase I safety trial of a vaccine against alpha-synuclein.
Alpha-synuclein is the sticky protein that clumps in the cells of people with Parkinson’s, and AFFiRiS hopes to stop disease by inducing antibodies against alpha-synuclein accumulation. The Michael J. Fox Foundation funded this work with close to $2M, first with a grant for a pre-clinical study and then $1.5M in 2011 for the Phase I trial. It’s the first drug against alpha-synuclein to reach clinical testing.
“A treatment that could slow or stop Parkinson’s progression would be a game changer for the five million worldwide living with this disease and the many more who will become at risk as our population ages,” said MJFF CEO Todd Sherer, PhD. “This trial is one of the most promising efforts toward that goal.”
In two different doses the drug, called PD01A, was safe and tolerable. Half of those vaccinated showed alpha-synuclein antibodies, which is a promising but very early sign. Further trials will test PDO1A’s benefit to patients.
The next step is a boost study that will test the safety and effect of a boost vaccination (another dose). MJFF will support that trial, which will take place in Vienna, Austria and start recruiting in September.
Hi RoyProp. It does not indicate whether this can be administered to existing patients, which I would imagine it could; or to newly diagnosed patients. Do you know?
Alpha synuclein clumping/Lewy bodies is a major problem in idiopathic Parkinson's disease and having a vaccine that would break up AS is a good thing but, like most therapies, there is a lower tech option.
The background: leprosy patients who were treated with the antibiotic rifampicin were found to have lower rates of senile dementia than leprosy patients not treated with the drug. The following study demonstrates both the ability of rifampicin and magnesium to break up alpha synuclein:
Obviously, PD patients are not going to get a prescription of rifampicin from their neurologist but they can start taking magnesium. The only problem is the most common form of Mg is magnesium oxide and it is junk. It has only 4% bioavailablity so it is worthless. Also, magnesium cannot be used with anti-convulsants like gabapentin/Neuronotin.
I use the combination of magnesium threonate and magnesium chloride. MgCL is directly applied to the skin and is in a liquid form. MgTH easily passes the blood brain barrier and a good secondary choice is chelated magnesium glycinate - it is cheap and passes the BBB.
But the problem with curcumin is it is not easily absorbed with the body so it has to be taken with piperine, the alkaloid in black pepper. Piperine increases the bioavailablity of curcumin by 2.000 %.
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