1st-of-its-kind Parkinson's treatment may slow aggressive disease, trial hints

A first-of-its kind antibody treatment may slow the progression of movement problems in some people with Parkinson's disease (PD), early clinical trial data suggest.

Current treatments for PD only ease its symptoms; they don't address its underlying causes in the brain. Now, the new antibody, called prasinezumab, has shown promise in treating one cause of the disease and thus in slowing down its movement symptoms, such as tremors and stiffness.

One of the main drivers of PD is thought to be the accumulation of an abnormal version of a protein called alpha synuclein in the brain. Prasinezumab targets and helps break down these protein clumps, with the goal of slowing the disease.

Now, there's evidence that prasinezumab may work, at least for some people. An analysis from an ongoing, midstage clinical trial suggests prasinezumab may slow the signs of motor dysfunction in people with rapidly progressing forms of PD. The results were published Monday (April 15) in the journal Nature Medicine.

Related: Gene variant guards against Parkinson's and could lead to therapies

The analysis took a closer look at 316 participants from the clinical trial. An earlier phase of the research had tested the effect of prasinezumab on PD progression in these people but did not find that it had a meaningful effect, overall. However, the participants' symptoms progressed at widely different speeds.

The researchers speculated that the rate of disease progression in different people might have skewed the results, masking benefits that the therapy may have offered people with faster progressing disease. So, they took a second look at these individuals with aggressive disease, who made up about one-quarter of the overall group, and compared those treated with prasinezumab for a year to those given a placebo.