Addenbrooke’s consultant encourages Parkinson’s patients to help with research

April 25, 2016

Professor Roger Barker, a Consultant Neurologist who specialises in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s Disease at Addenbrooke's.

An Addenbrooke's specialist is encouraging people who have Parkinson's to get involved with research to help experts in the future find better ways to treat the disease.

Professor Roger Barker, a Consultant Neurologist who specialises in Parkinson's and Huntington's Disease, said it was important for patients to engage in research to "help structure it" and advise scientists on "the big questions we should be asking".

One person in every 500 has Parkinson's, a progressive neurological condition which can cause a tremor, rigidity and slowness of movement but symptoms and how quickly they progress are different for everyone.

Prof Barker's comments come following Parkinson's Awareness week, which ran until yesterday, to encourage the UK to get talking about the disease and the support and advice that makes a big difference.

"It's important for patients to engage with research and to get involved, not only to be part of it but to help structure it - what are the big research questions we should be asking?" he said.

People with Parkinson's do not have enough of a chemical called dopamine because some nerve cells in their brain have died. Without dopamine people can find that their movements become slower so it takes longer to do things.

The loss of nerve cells in the brain causes the symptoms of Parkinson's to appear.

While there is currently no cure, drugs and treatments are available to manage many of the symptoms. Scientists are working hard to try and develop better treatments with various research projects in the pipeline.

Prof Barker is currently working with a team in Sweden on a cell transplant study which he hopes will move on to human trials in two or three years time. And this year or next, he hopes to start gene therapy trials.

"There's a big effort to try and find drugs that slow the disease and stop it progressing as quickly as they do," he said. "Statins [to reduce cholesterol]and Metformin [used for type 2 diabetes], some of those drugs may be useful to slow down Parkinson's."

Prof Barker added he hoped in time they would know enough about the disease to slow its progression. "The average age to get it is 68," he said. "Death rates do not increaser it. The younger you get it, it will affect you significantly - it's a nuisance rather than a killer.

"What we're trying to do if we can slow it down by 50 per cent and make the symptoms even better controlled with medication. My hope would be we will understand there are slightly different types of Parkinson's that will be targeted with different therapies. If anyone is worried about it they should always pop along and see their doctor.

"The treatment that exists, most people with Parkinson's all do well with proper medical car

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