The neurodegenerative disease currently affects around 153,000 people in the UK.
Parkinson’s UK has awarded researchers at Imperial College London (ICL) almost £100,000 to develop new medicines for Parkinson’s disease (PD) through the charity’s Medicines Acceleration Award grant scheme.
The researchers plan to use computer-based programs to simulate suitable targets for new drugs to slow the progression of neurological diseases and increase the chances of success in clinical trials.
Parkinson’s, which affects around 153,000 people in the UK, is a neurodegenerative disease that gradually damages parts of the brain, causing symptoms such as tremors and stiffness.
During the drug development process, the more information researchers have when planning clinical trials, including simulating how a drug works, the more likely it will be successful when tested in humans and compared with other available treatments.
Using simulations, the researchers aim to test the best way to target GPNMB, a protein that has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, as previous studies have shown that this protein can reduce damage to cells by preventing the diffusion of alpha-synuclein, a hallmark protein of Parkinson’s disease.
Previous research has already shown that alpha-synuclein can cause irreversible damage to brain cells in Parkinson’s patients, ultimately leading to the progression and worsening of symptoms.
The research team is now working with the UK’s Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Accelerator (NATA) to develop small drugs called antisense oligonucleotides to test which ones can most effectively reduce the activity of GPNMB in order to determine which ones are most likely to be successful in clinical trials.
Professor Michael Johnson, lead researcher at ICL, said: “A major problem in drug development is that half of all medicines fail during clinical trials due to lack of efficacy – for example, a drug does not work despite extensive testing in people prior to clinical trials.”
“This award will fund our collaboration with NATA to develop a new type of drug against GPNMB as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease.”
