Parkinson’s Disease
About PD
Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive and degenerative disorder caused by oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. Symptoms consist of progressive loss of motor functions and increased tremor, as well as dementia, depression, sleep disorders and a range of autonomic dysfunctions. Ultimately PD can result in adverse clinical outcomes, contributing to over 200,000 deaths annually.
PD is characterised by the loss of dopamine producing neurons predominantly in the substantia nigra (SN) of the brain, while a high accumulation is seen of the neurotoxin α-synuclein.
It is thought that treatment of patients with early symptoms provides a better prognosis.
The current standard of care in PD is levodopa, monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) inhibitors or dopamine agonists, which all aim to provide symptomatic relief but are not able to slow neurodegeneration. These medications become less effective as the disease progresses and escalating doses may be required.
Clinical & regulatory progress
November 2024
CLINUVEL announced that its Parkinson’s disease program will be temporarily suspended. More details are in the announcement here.
June 2023
CLINUVEL announced a novel clinical program evaluating afamelanotide as a treatment in early-stage Parkinson’s disease (PD or Parkinson’s) in fair-skinned patients. Read the announcement.
References
Gao, X., et al. (2009). Genetic determinants of hair color and Parkinson’s disease risk. Ann Neurol. 65:76–82.
Chen, X., et al. (2017). The Melanoma-Linked “Redhead” MC1R Influences Dopaminergic Neuron Survival. Annals of Neurology, 81(3), 395–406.
Chen, X., et al. (2017). Red hair, MC1R variants, and risk for Parkinson’s disease – a meta‐analysis. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 4(3), 212–216.
Gao, X., et al. (2009). Family history of melanoma and Parkinson disease risk. Neurology 73:1286–1291.
Kareus, S.A., et al. (2012). Shared Predispositions of Parkinsonism and Cancer: a Population-Based Pedigree-Linked Study. Arch Neurol. 69:1572–1577.
Cai, W., et al. (2022). Melanocortin 1 receptor activation protects against alpha-synuclein pathologies in models of Parkinson’s disease. Molecular Neurodegeneration, 17(1), 16.
Srivast, P., et al. (2023). Peripheral MC1R activation modulates immune responses and is neuroprotective in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. Research Square, rs.3.rs-3042571.
