Courtesy: Medill Reports Chicago
A little over a decade ago, a small study suggested that Coenzyme Q10, a vitamin-like substance in human cells, may help slow the progress of Parkinson’s disease. Now a new study is putting this drug to the test on a much larger scale.
“I think it’s exciting, I mean the neuro-protection, what we call disease modification, is the holy grail of Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Katie Kompoliti, associate professor of neurological sciences at Rush University, who is helping conduct the study.
Sixty-eight medical centers, including Rush, Northwestern University and University of Chicago, are participating in the trial throughout the U.S. and Canada.
A movement disorder, Parkinson’s disease results from the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine, a chemical that carries messages between brain cells and that controls areas such as movement and emotion. Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include tremor, stiffness of limbs and slowness of movement.
Ten years ago, a study took place at 10 medical centers, including Rush, that tested Coenzyme Q10 in smaller doses on approximately 80 individuals. Results from the study supported the idea that this drug helped slow the disease’s progression.
“So we very much think that this has a great promise for improving the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, and if it really does slow it down, it will be the first drug that has definitively been shown to do so,” said Dr. Flint Beal, professor of neuroscience and neurology at Weill Medical College at Cornell University, who is a principal investigator of this study.
Coenzyme Q10 acts as an antioxidant, substances that can protect cells, and also has been linked to energy production in cells.These two functions are connected with the cell loss in Parkinson’s disease.
The trial is enrolling approximately 600 men and women, who all have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease within the past five years. Study participants will be randomly assigned to one of three doses along with vitamin E: 1,200 milligrams of Coenzyme Q10, 2,400 milligrams of Coenzyme Q10 and a placebo, or sugar pill.
“I think it’s something good to try,” said James Schmidt, a trial participant,who had learned about QE3 on the Internet. When he tried to purchase Coenzyme Q10 over the counter, he could only find 100-milligram doses. If the study was looking at much larger doses, he wanted to participate.
“I felt like I had nothing to lose,” Schmidt said. “If it is a placebo, then so be it.”
Beal said that the side effects of Coenzyme Q10 are minimal: gastrointestinal issues, such as nausea and diarrhea.
Neither medical center researchers nor study participants know what dose is being administered. After 16 months of patients’ taking the drug, researchers will evaluate both the patients’ comments about their activities of daily living as well as conduct physical examination.
“I like all these early studies that look into disease modification,” Kompoliti said. “You first of all deal with patients that are motivated that just had to face a life-changing event in their lives.”
She added, “Suddenly, they have to change the whole way they think about everything because you have a chronic, progressive disease that will potentially cripple you and kill you.”
The study began at the end of 2008. According to Beal, the study is two-thirds full and still recruiting at several centers. Because participants are still entering the trial at this point, the projected completion date is fall 2011.
For more information on the study, visit: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00740714?term=qe3&rank=1
Beal said, “We expect that we will get a definitive answer from this clinical trial, and hopefully it will be one that shows efficacy, and that’ll have a huge impact on treatment of patients, because if we can slow the disease down, they can live much better lives for a much longer period of time.”
Elizabeth Brandon
