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Medical experts note that Parkinson’s disease, the second most common degenerative disorder, has come a long way from a non-treatable disorder to a point of where therapy helps people to maintain their near normal quality of life.
Parkinson’s disease no longer portends a future of extremely limited physical capabilities. Currently, we are looking for a future, where cure can be provided for people with Parkinson’s disease. Albeit this might take few more decades, there are lot changing trends in the newer pipeline of medications which give a sign of future available therapies. We are slowly moving away from symptomatic therapies like levodopa, pramipexole, apomorphine, deep brain stimulation to precision medicine, said Dr Prashanth LK, Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Specialist, Bengaluru.
On the occasion of the recent World Parkinson’s Day observed annually on April 11, this year’s theme that this is disease is diagnosed every six months.
Dr Ravindra Shrivastava, director- neuroscience, Primus Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi said that prescribed medications are the first choice by neurologists for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. If there is no relief found from medicines, then surgical intervention with a pacemaker in the brain and deep brain stimulation are the other viable options for relief.
Dr Prashanth pointed that precision medicine which involves treating each person based upon their genetic mutations, has contributed for Parkinson’s disease. Newer therapies are in pipeline to address people with LRRK2 mutations, GBA mutations, which cause Parkinson’s disease. Those with these genetic mutations can hope to get better therapies in near future.
Further, researchers are also working on addressing the neuro-inflammatory changes which causes dopamine producing cells to be lost. Drugs for this concept in trial include c-Abl and other immune-modulators which are being aggressively researched. We do hope that in near future, with newer pharmacogenomic based therapies, the treatment of Parkinson’s disease would change dramatically, said Dr Prashanth.
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