When Parkinson's disease is a part of your life, whether it affects you directly or a close family member, it can feel as though nothing can successfully slow the progress of the disease. And while it is true that there is no known cure for Parkinson's disease, that does not mean that there are no treatments in development to make living with Parkinson's more manageable. There are many medications and interventions that treat this disease available today. However, doctors are always looking for ways to improve upon treatments to increase a person's quality of life and to potentially combat the progress of the disease. Get to know about some of the newest clinical trials for Parkinson's disease so you can see if any of these up and coming treatments might be right for you.
Using Ketamine to Combat Side Effects
There is a medication that is commonly used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease that is highly effective, but can cause a variety of side effects. That medication is levodopa. Levodopa is a medication that increases dopamine levels in patients with Parkinson's (as dopamine levels are notoriously quite low with this disease).
However, levodopa can also commonly cause a side effect known as dyskinesia. Dyskinesia is a syndrome in which a person experiences involuntary movements throughout the body, most often in the arms and legs. These movements can be constant and quite disruptive to daily life. And until now, the only way to rid a person of this levodopa-related dyskinesia was to discontinue the use of levodopa. Of course, this would have other negative effects in the body, as dopamine levels would once again drop.
Doctors are now starting clinical trials regarding the use of the drug ketamine to reduce the occurrence of levodopa-related dyskinesia. Ketamine is a drug some doctors were testing for pain management in Parkinson's patients. In administering the drug for this purpose, they began to suspect it helped with dyskinesia as well. A human clinical trial will soon be underway to attempt to verify these results.
Stem Cell Treatment for Parkinson's
Currently, Japan is starting clinical trials and testing on a stem cell treatment for people with Parkinson's disease. This treatment would essentially reprogram adult stem cells. These adult stem cells would be manipulated to become dopaminergic progenitors. Dopaminergic progenitors are cells that grow into dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. Low dopamine levels are the biggest issue that occurs when a person suffers from Parkinson's, as it causes the other symptoms of the disease.
If this treatment protocol is successful, it could potentially do away with much of the need for dopamine-producing drug therapies. It can also have long-lasting effects that could, temporarily at least, halt or significantly slow the progress of the disease. While this initial clinical trial will take at least two years to be completed, it could prove to be a major breakthrough in Parkinson's management and research.
These clinical trials could potentially change the face of Parkinson's disease treatment. If you are interested in any of these treatments, talk to your doctor about getting in on the next phases of these clinical trials as soon as possible.
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