Ozempic-like medication could not treat Parkinson’s disease in an attempt

The idea was so tempting. Medicines in the GLP-1 class, which also include away and Ozempic, have proven to be wonderful in the treatment of weight loss and other diseases. And some researchers hoped that the medication could also help with some of the most difficult diseases – that of the brain, like Parkinson’s.

But now, at least for Parkinson’s, this hope seems to be doubled. A strict study in which Parkinson’s patients randomly for exenatide, a relative of Ozempic, was absolutely no benefit or slowing down the course of the degenerative disease after 96 weeks.

And there was no influence on the symptoms of the patients, no effect on brain scans, no subgroup that showed a benefit. Regardless of how the researchers cut the data into slices, the results were the same.

The study published in Lancet on Tuesday is bad news for half a million Americans in which Parkinson’s disease was diagnosed. Symptoms include tremors, stiffness and difficulties with the balance. Patients can also develop dementia. Treatments, including medication and deep stimulation of the brain, can help with symptoms. However, it was not shown that no treatment slowed down the progress of the disease.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Dr. Thomas Foltynie from University College London, who led the process. “We had expected that we would get through and we would achieve a positive result.”

Parkinson’s experts shared his feeling.

“This is a sobering moment,” said Dr. Michael S. Okun, a Parkinson’s disease expert at the University of Florida and the national medical consultant of the Parkinson’s Foundation. “This is a really well done study and it came empty -handed.”

The finding can have an impact on researchers who are wondering whether the newer GLP-1 medication could help to slow down the Alzheimer’s course or prevent the disease.

The new study included 194 people with Parkinson’s disease treated in six research hospitals in Great Britain. The patients were assigned to the random principle for 96 weeks with exenatide, a type -2 -diabetes treatment of Astrazeneca, and sold under the brand name byetta. Or with a placebo. The process was financed by the British National Institute for Health and Care Research with the support of wear and tear from the Cure Parkinson’s charity and the van Andel Institute.

The medication is in the same class as Ozempic and Verzam and lowers like the blood sugar level. All are so-called GLP-1 receptor agonists, generally referred to as GLP-1. Exenatide is not as powerful to achieve weight loss as the newer drugs, but experts say there is no reason to assume that recent medications in studies on brain disease would do differently.

According to researchers, the results are particularly disappointing because there were suggestions that GLP-1 medication could help Parkinson’s patients.

GLP-1 medication protected neurons from damage in laboratory studies and in a study with rats that recorded such a brain injury in Parkinson’s disease.

It seemed that the results could also apply to patients.

“People began to dig into damage databases,” said Dr. Okun and explained that the researchers had examined large databases who took drugs with drugs and their diagnoses. The researchers asked whether patients who had taken GLP-1 were less likely to get Parkinson’s, or, if they had it, had a disease that was slower.

The results were promising.

They examined epidemiological studies. They found that people with diabetes who had GLP-1 had less likely Parkinson’s.

Then two small studies indicate that exenatide could slow down the symptoms of some Parkinson’s symptoms over a year.

Continuation of the references to progress, a larger but still preliminary study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. At the time, Okun said that the result “nibbles on the edges of the disease modification”.

“What we had last year was a one -year attempt and a small signal,” said Dr. David Standaert, a Parkinson’s researcher at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. “What would happen if you went longer? Well, that’s longer and there is simply not much here. “

The problem with the examination of GLP-1S in Parkinson’s disease is that what exenatide should do in the brain is not clear.

“I would not do any further study like this if you don’t find out what the goal is,” said Dr. Standaert. “What is the biochemistry you want to change in the brain? How do these drugs work anyway? “