Scientists discover potential treatment for Parkinson's disease

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-0...n-disease.html

http://www.pnas.org/content/112/28/8756

Here's my briefing notes based on the referenced Medical Express article (the PNAS paper is behind a pay-wall):

In a rat model of Parkinson's it was found that:
- Nurr1, a protein found in the brain, "protects the brain's ability to generate dopamine neurons";
- activating Nurr1 in rats eliminated all symptoms of Parkinson's.

Nurr1 is activated by existing FDA approved anti-malarials, chloroquine and amodiaquine.

There would seem to me to be a good case for going ahead with clinical trials on the existing drugs. But no, they want to modify the drugs first, before carrying out clinical trials. Why?

Interestingly, there's a lot of claims in PwP sites around the web that quinine relieves PD, and a few claiming that it causes it.

John

It looks promising to me.

I have met Petsko (one of the corresponding authors) casually a few times at conferences - he does not publish rubbish.

Plaquenil --aka Hydroxycloroquinine is often given to patients all over the world for auto immune diseases such as Lupus, Sjogren's etc as well as an anti malarial.

You would think that a positive effect on PD would have been evident given the large patient population taking it.

There should have been an epidemiological sign of less PD in countries with malaria.

Just wondering.