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new look for parkinson's disease treatment: novel therapy shows promise in clinical trials

with the current therapies geared toward symptom relief, those living with parkinson’s disease continue to wait for a drug that could address the disease progression head-on.

by angelica bottaro

apr 5 2024

6 minute read

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current medical approaches for parkinson’s disease aim to relieve symptoms in people with the disease. getty images

a new study aims to provide people with parkinson’s disease with a newer, potentially more effective treatment option: ub-312. while the drug passed the first phase of clinical trials in the united states, and still has a ways to go before it could even reach the hands of people who need it most, the preliminary results show great promise in both the way parkinson’s is treated and the direction in which future therapies are going.

angelica asis, vice president of research at parkinson canada, spoke with healthing about the current therapies and how ub-312 may change things if all goes well through the next two rounds of clinical trials.

“there’s a lot of innovation taking place in the field and a lot of different approaches and mechanisms that researchers are taking to tackle this disease because it is a complex disease,” she said. “i think there’s a lot of moving targets and unknown answers that make therapeutic development challenging. so, anytime we hear about something like this new therapy, ub-312, i think it represents hope for new options.”

current therapies for parkinson’s disease

living with parkinson’s disease is a daily challenge. from day-to-day symptoms to the worsening progression of disease over time, people coping have no choice but to pick a treatment that’s available and hope for the best. current medical approaches for parkinson’s aim to relieve symptoms in people with the disease. they do this by playing with the brain’s dopamine levels because it’s thought that a lack of dopamine is what drives the hallmark characteristics of the disease.

when dopamine levels drop to dangerous levels, it can lead to changes in how the brain and body function, leading to both mental and physical changes. many health problems aside from parkinson’s are linked with low dopamine, such as:

in parkinson’s treatment, medications aim to restore levels of dopamine to help restore function. these types of drugs are called dopamine agonists.

“this has been a long-standing approach,” asis said. “so, it’s really to replace or mimic dopamine in the brain and to compensate for that loss of dopamine. but even dopaminergic therapies are improving.”

as medical advancements have continued to shed light on the mechanisms behind parkinson’s, they’ve opened the door for potential new therapies that are already currently available.

“more recently, there have been these game-changing therapies that are becoming more widely available, such as surgical interventions like deep brain stimulation, where they put a device in the brain that, when turned on, can help relieve motor symptoms, like the tremor and the rigidity that you see often in parkinson’s,” said asis.

“there are quite a few non-motor symptoms that a lot of people may not be aware of in parkinson’s, like anxiety, sleep issues, sexual dysfunction, depression. so, these can be treated with specific medications for those specific symptoms, but again, there are no approved therapies that are slowing the progression of the disease.”

with the current therapies geared toward symptom relief, those living with parkinson’s continue to wait for a drug that could address the disease progression head-on in a way that improves their quality of life while ensuring the damage being done to the body slows down or stops altogether.

the different approach of ub-312

ub-312, developed by biotech company vaxxinity, is considered a disease-modifying treatment, which means it targets specific areas in the body to modify or change the course of the disease and its effects. while it may still be far off from being in the hands of people with parkinson’s, the promise of a disease-modifying medication provides hope to people with the disease because, currently, there are no options to keep disease progression at bay.

the action behind why this medication sounds so promising has to do with a protein known as alpha-synuclein, which builds up in the body in parkinson’s disease. research on alpha-synuclein and its role in parkinson’s development and progression has found that the protein damages certain cell balances in the brain, leading to the death of vital nerve cells that manage fine motor control.

the researchers working on the new clinical trials aimed to try out a drug that could essentially target the buildup of this protein, rid it from the body, and, in the process, regress parkinson’s disease and its associated symptoms.

they did so by creating ub-312, an immunotherapy or vaccine therapy that introduces alpha-synuclein into the body so that the immune system produces antibodies against it. these antibodies then attack the build-up of alpha-synuclein.

“from what i read, it definitely helps to act as an immunotherapy by encouraging the body to view the synuclein as foreign and mount an immune attack against it through the production of antibodies, which we would normally produce for the flu or other diseases,” said asis. “this is a way to kind of manipulate your body to believe that synuclein is bad so that whenever it sees it, it starts to target it. so, the idea being that if you target it and prevent it from building up in the brain, you could help to slow potentially the progression of parkinson’s.”

the study conducted was small, with 20 patients, but the results showed that the medication did seek out and bind to the clumps of alpha-synuclein, lowering the levels of the protein in the spinal fluid of the participants by 20 per cent.

the future of parkinson’s disease therapy and ub-312

while the current results of the study on ub-312 do show promise, it’s not likely to be quick to pharmacy shelves as clinical trials take time to ensure that the process from invention to patient use is done correctly. after all, the first phase of a clinical trial is just one of four in the u.s. the second and third phases bring the therapy to larger groups of participants – 100 to 300 and then 1000 to 3000 people – while the fourth phase would include approval from the food and drug administration (fda) and availability to the public.

once that is complete, an entirely new process would begin in canada to validate the results of the clinical trial and get approval from health canada.

“first and foremost, it’s important to look at safety and from there, it just opens up the gates to see what comes next in terms of bringing in more patients to try it and how it compares against standard therapy,” said asis.

as with anything good, it takes time for drugs, especially disease-modifying therapies, to be approved for patient use. so, people with parkinson’s may be able to hold onto some hope for the future, but it will likely take years before it’s available.

“sometimes, that could take five to 10 years. again, depending on how easy it is to recruit the participants,” said asis. “so, if this is a multinational study with lots of clinics involved—and that’s something we’re (parkinson canada) looking to do is provide more support for infrastructure for trials in canada in particular.”

she later continued, “with trials, it’s highly variable. sometimes, recruitment can take a while. sometimes, data collection can take a while. so, it also depends on the type of measurement or endpoint you’re looking at. some endpoints are quick to measure, some take much longer. parkinson’s is a slow-progressing disease, so to measure an effect in a shorter window of time is more challenging compared to other conditions where there is something that can be seen a little quicker.”

even though the timeline may be a little longer than people would like to hear, the drug does show high promise in the treatment of parkinson’s and medical advancements geared toward making the complex disease that much easier to understand.

“it’s just a reflection of the innovation in the field and that they’re moving maybe past the idea of studying just dopaminergic therapy and really looking at all avenues of the disease and all perspectives of how the disease is playing out,” asis said.

if you or someone you love has parkinson’s disease, parkinson canada has resources available that can help connect you to the right services, get involved in the community, and find tailored care. you can reach out to their referral helpline, visit their website to learn more about parkinson’s or use their carefinder tool to find the right care for you.

angelica bottaro

angelica bottaro is the lead editor at healthing.ca, and has been content writing for over a decade, specializing in all things health. her goal as a health journalist is to bring awareness and information to people that they can use as an additional tool toward their own optimal health.

new look for parkinson's disease treatment: novel therapy shows promise in clinical trials

with the current therapies geared toward symptom relief, those living with parkinson’s disease continue to wait for a drug that could address the disease progression head-on.

current therapies for parkinson’s disease

what it feels like: parkinson’s disease didn't make me feel sorry for myself

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the different approach of ub-312

the future of parkinson’s disease therapy and ub-312

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new look for parkinson's disease treatment: novel therapy shows promise in clinical trials

with the current therapies geared toward symptom relief, those living with parkinson’s disease continue to wait for a drug that could address the disease progression head-on.

current therapies for parkinson’s disease

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