Hello loyal followers of my blog, many of you have asked me to post a study on albuterol and Parkinson’s disease. This came to light when a scientist, John Adelman, Ph.D., in my boxing class, announced in class there was an exciting study. The class asked that I send out this study along with layman’s terms as to what it meant.
“The cause of idiopathic Parkinson’s is over-expression of the alpha-synuclein protein. A screen for small molecules that turn off alpha-synuclein gene expression, and therefore decrease alpha-synuclein protein expression, identified four related compounds. The prototype is albuterol, an FDA approved drug for asthma that acts as a bronchodilator that also gets into the brain. They then looked at the medical history of people who take albuterol for asthma and found that there was a significantly decreased propensity to develop Parkinson’s compared to non-users. They then tested the drug in Parkinson’s model mice and found the drug protected both symptoms and dopamine neurons in the brain. This suggests that albuterol would slow progression of Parkinson’s. Clinical trials have not been performed and will take at least a few years. But knowing what the science does in fact show is compelling, and likely a game changer. I think it was worthwhile to share with the group”. John Adelman, Ph.D
Repurposing, or repositioning, is taking drugs that often are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat one condition and using them to treat another. This potentially reduces time and costs associated with drug development. Several repurposed therapies are currently in varied phases of clinical testing to evaluate safety or potential benefit in Parkinson’s.
Repurposing does not eliminate the need for clinical trials. Proceed with caution if you’re contemplating adding a repurposed therapy to your Parkinson’s regimen before testing is complete. Please have this conversation with your physician first. It is a drug with many side effects and not intended for this use.
For the full study, you can view it on Medical Xpress.