Ian Douglas from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine told Reuters "We often hear about negative side effects associated with medications, but sometimes there can also be unintended beneficial effects." The results of the recent study by Douglas and colleagues suggests that peroxisome proliferation-activated receptor gamma (PPARɣ) agonists such as rosiglitazone and pioglitazone may be neuroprotective and even reduce the risk for developing PD. The study looked at patients with diabetes who did not have PD when they started glitazone treatment. Although these results do not establish whether glitazone treatment can actually prevent PD or whether it "merely" slows the subclinical progression of the disease, these results nevertheless indicate that the role of PPARɣ agonists, and the biological pathways these drugs modulate, in the progression of PD warrants further investigation. A clinical trial is currently underway to investigate the role of pioglitazone as a therapy to slow the progression of PD (Clinicaltrials.gov registration: NCT01280123).
Link to story reported on by Reuters
Link to original article in Plos Medicine
Link to story reported on by Reuters
Link to original article in Plos Medicine
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