Diabetes drug may be useful to halt Parkinson's progression: Scientists

This is something new. A new research has stated that diabetes drug may be useful to treat those suffering from Parkinson's disease.

The person suffering from Parkinson has his brain progressing damaged and finds its difficult to move and eventually faces memory problems. This is because the cells that generate the hormone dopamine are lost.

As a matter of fact, there are media reports which suggest that by 2020 about 1,62,000 people in United Kingdom will be suffering from this condition. As per scientists, the drug which is generally used to treat patients with type 2 diabetes may help in improving the movement related issues.

Though existing drugs are useful in managing the symptoms of the disease but as such they are not able to stop the brain cells from dying.A clinical trial was conducted on 62 patients and the results showed that the diabetes drug exenatide stopped the progression of the disease.

Parkinson disease requires a drug which can actually slow down the progession of the disease.

Researchers have warned that the drug must be tested more for accurate results.

It has been reported that half of the patients were provided with the drug exenatide and the others were provided with placebo during the trial. The patients were on their usual medication during the trial.

People who were on their normal medication showed signs of decline in over 48 weeks of treatment. On the other hand, those who were provided exenatide turned out to be stable.

After a period of three months when the experimental treatment was stopped, people who were given the diabetic drug exenatide showed a better brain health as compared to those who didn't. People who were given the drug were 3.5 points higher on the scale in comparison to the ones who weren't given.

According to the researchers, this is the first clinical trail for the patients who have parkinson, where an effect of this size has been reported.