June 17, 2015
Associate Professor at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) School of Biological Sciences Yoon Ho Sup with a protein sample, which will then be inserted into a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy machine to identify the compounds which could bind and activate Nurr1 in the brain. Photo: Jaslin Goh
Anti-malaria
drugs could potentially treat Parkinson’s disease, scientists from Nanyang
Technological University (NTU), and McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School
in the United States, have found.The drugs, chloroquine and amodiaquine, share
a basic chemical structure that allows them to bind and activate a class of
proteins called Nurr1, which protects the brain’s ability to generate dopamine
neurons.
Parkinson’s disease disrupts the production of
dopamine neurons, which progressively causes the loss of motor control as
dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that affects motor control and
movement of muscles in the body.
The research was a four-year collaboration
between Professor Kwang-Soo Kim from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School
and Associate Professor Yoon Ho Sup from NTU’s School of Biological Sciences.
They screened 1,000 US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA)-approved drugs before discovering the two anti-malaria
drugs that worked.
In laboratory tests, rats injected with the
drugs improved in their behaviour and later showed no signs of suffering from
Parkinson’s disease.
Prof Kim, a leading expert in Parkinson’s, said
the current gold standard of treatment is to replenish the patient’s dopamine
levels through medication or by deep-brain stimulation using electric currents.
“However, these pharmacological and surgical
treatments address the patient’s symptoms, such as to improve mobility
functions in the early stages of the disease, but the treatments cannot slow
down or stop the disease process,” he said.
The team is modifying the two drugs to be more
potent while having fewer side effects. They are also finding new chemical
compounds which could activate Nurr1. If all goes well, Assoc Prof Yoon
estimates clinical trials could start in three to five years’ time.
“Our research shows that
existing drugs can be repurposed to treat other diseases and once several
potential drugs are found, we can redesign them to be more effective in
combating their targeted diseases while reducing side effects,” said the expert
in drug discovery and design.
Chloroquine was used to treat malaria in the
late 1940s to early 1950s until the malaria parasite grew resistant, while
amodiaquine is still used in Africa today. Side effects include hallucinations,
nausea and diarrhoea.
Parkinson’s disease affects three in 1,000
persons aged 50 and above, and is one of the most common neurodegenerative
conditions in Singapore.
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There is currently no
cure or treatment to slow down or halt the disease, whose symptoms include
tremors, muscle stiffness and changes in speech.
http://health.einnews.com/article/276206159/yAP8kBtjdBcWuFRj
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