Doxycycline For Treatment Of PD
 

From the research paper:
"The results presented herein reveal potential protective side effects for doxycycline in the pathogenesis cycle of synucleinopathies that could be exploited repurposing an old safe drug."
"This data strongly suggests that doxycycline in subantibiotic doses (20–40 mg/day) would be enough to exert neuroprotection."

From the ScienceDaily article:
"This treatment could stop Parkinson's from progressing, and we therefore plan to start a clinical trial shortly."

Could this be another clinical trial worthy of a fast-track process?

Repurposing doxycycline for synucleinopathies: remodelling of α-synuclein oligomers towards non-toxic parallel beta-sheet structured species : Scientific Reports

(this is an open-access research paper)

An impressive piece of biophysics and cell biology.

I think that the comments in the link are worth considering.

Well spotted, kiwi33. I missed those comments, and they are significant.

It would seem that a fast-tracked clinical trial would not be appropriate.

Interesting that you feel this way. When I first read this article back in February I wasn't overly impressed. Certainly no more than with the dozens of other pre-clinical studies that have "cured" PD. I was surprised when it received so much press recently. When I saw your post, it made me go and reread the research. I still don't see why this study would call for a fast-designation on future research anymore than the dozens of other drugs, both new and repurposed, that have shown pre-clinical success. I also would have some concern about a treatment which requires the long term use of an antibiotic. What am I missing here?

Thanks Kiwi. Sorry jeffreyn, I guess I should have read through all of the posts before making my comments.

No worries, Tupelo3.

When I wrote those words, I had in the back of my mind the recent discussions about the desirability of speeding up the clinical-trials phase for PD drugs in general. So it wasn't that this one stood out particularly (although it did seem like a good candidate), it was more that I'd lowered the bar!

The question mark at the end was (secret?) code for "I'm interested in a discussion". :-)

But after that, kiwi33 alerted me to some expert comments, which shed new light on things.

Curcumin
 

From the same paper, curcumin is mentioned. While everyone waits for re-purposed drugs to make it out of these trials, maybe curcumin could help now.

Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) also reduces significantly cell toxicity of α-Syn aggregates by binding to preformed oligomers and fibrils46 with effectiveness comparable with doxycycline (1:1 molar ratio)47. However, the instability, low solubility, little oral bioavailability of curcumin limit its clinical applications and to overcome this drawback, some structural curcumin analogues with antiaggregation properties are been developed. In this context, no human long-term toxicity studies have been reported until now with curcumin structural analogues48. On the contrary, oral administration of doxycycline proved to be a safe and effective drug for dermatologically long-term treatments49,50. Moreover, it was also reported that sub-antibiotic doses of doxycycline have no effect on the composition or antibiotic resistance of different microflora51.

http://www.longvida.com/story.html might be the answer to low bioavailability curcumin.

I started taking 20 mg a day of Doxy about a week ago. So far, no observable effects.

Very interesting KNVP! I've personally considered starting 20mg/day Doxy for my PD. I guess I would generally expect, if it works, that you might observe that your PD would stop progressing, which would probably require many months to be apparent.

I certainly hope your DIY experiment is successful! I have additional thoughts/questions. Please PM me if you have a minute.

Sure you can private message me. I am off the computer for a few days except for checking a few things. I have trouble with my eyes if I look at a screen too much. Then I have to stay away for a while.

Well, you are right about being patient with results. Did you see my post on NTcell and stopping progression? NZ company and they seem to be doing well.

I don't recall seeing a post about your eyes so far. So now I need to ask if you have headaches with your eye problems?

Chronic use of the tetracycline family (minocycline and doxycyline) can trigger pseudotumor cerebri (intracranial hypertension) which can damage the optic nerves. So if you have not had evaluation for this, now is the time to do so.

KNPV, I've been unable to figure out how to PM on this forum. Do you know if it is possible to PM?
Thanks!

Hello PDman

The forum has a default number of posts required before new members can PM
Once you reach that, the PM system will open up for you.

At the rate my PD progression is going, in a year or so I may be dead or in a nursing home for indigent patients, wheel chair bound, stuck in a corner, heavily drugged and drooling. As we know, there aren't many drug options on the table that can potentially slow or stop this progression. I am willing to take a chance on doxycycline. I believe my primary care doc will prescribe it for me. At this stage of the game there's not much for me to lose.

Hi Blackfeather,
Sorry not up on Doxycycline so won't comment on it.
Blackfeather, maybe you have a bit of depression?
Do you see a movement disorder specialist for management of P.D.?
If not it might be worthwhile.
As far as Drs in general practice go which I think a primary care physician is I'd be more inclined to hear what an MDS who lives and breathes P.D. would come up with plus other medical staff like a speech therapist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist who specialise in P.D.

Yes, I am suffering from depression, more than a bit, though. The depression and anxiety are very intense. I have been experiencing non motor PD symptoms beginning more than 2 decades ago, such as insomnia, fatigue, depression, gastro intestinal problems and others. Last six years I have the classic motor symptoms. Can't remember when life was normal. My primary care phys. Is a wise older gent who I think will be more familiar with doxy than my Movement disorder specialist. Therapy won't help much I'm afraid. Thanks!

Doxycycline and PD
 

I'm starting to take 20 mg/day doxycycline, and I'm continuing to discuss the pros and cons of this with my neurologist.

Still taking 20 mg/day of doxy, no ill effects observable.

Doxycycline 20 mg progress
 

PDman,

Are you still taking Doxy? Could you give an update please?

Thanks!

Three more months on doxy, still no observable results.

Thanks, my eyes are ok. I go to a university medical center and feel I am in good hands. I don't get headaches, thank goodness. I wish I could say I am not "foggy" on a regular basis, but I am. I just posted I have no ill effects from the doxy but didn't mention that I don't see any improvement either. I had long term use of it about 20 years ago when I had Lyme and scleroderma, but that has passed. Or so it seems.

To private message I think you click on the name of the person and some choices show up.
:)

Yes. 20mg/day. I don't see any clear reduction of symptoms (e.g. tremors, insomnia, orthostatic hypertension), but I really felt like the best case scenario would be that it would stop progression, which would take a long time to see. I don't think I'm seeing any side effects though.

I attended the Grand Challenges VAI event in Michigan this week, and asked a panel of PD researchers what they thought of the doxy approach. They were dismissive of it.

Thanks for the update. What did you think of this year's conference. I was there also and thought some of the presentations were great.

That was my first Grand Challenges meeting. I'm a PhD chemist, and I was diagnosed with PD two years ago, so I wanted to learn more of the science, and also learn about how PwP act as advocates and interact with the research community. The meeting was good for both these objectives.

I particularly enjoyed the talks by Langston and Foltynie.

I didn't see Langston (I was in a meeting on the patient Rallying side). Tom Foltynie's research is very exciting. I spent some time with hm at the cocktail party. He is definitely deserving of the award they gave him.