Promising drug slows down advance of Parkinson's disease and
improves symptomsNovember 29th, 2012 in Parkinson's & Movement
disorders Treating Parkinson's disease patients with the
experimental drug GM1 ganglioside improved symptoms and slowed
their progression during a two and a half-year trial, Thomas
Jefferson University researchers report in a new study published
online November 28 in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
Although the precise mechanisms of action of this drug are still
unclear, the drug may protect patients' dopamine-producing
neurons from dying and at least partially restore their
function, thereby increasing levels of dopamine, the key
neurochemical missing in the brain of Parkinson's patients. The
research team, led by senior author Jay S. Schneider, Ph.D.,
Director of the Parkinson's Disease Research Unit and Professor
in the Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology and the
Department of Neurology at Jefferson, found that administration
of GM1 ganglioside, a substance nat