Research on developing drugs for Parkinson's disease

Brain Res Bull. 2021 Mar:168:100-109. doi: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2020.12.017. Epub 2020 Dec 30.

Abstract

Current treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD) are mainly dopaminergic drugs. However, dopaminergic drugs are only symptomatic treatments and limited by several side effects. Recent studies into drug development focused on emerging new molecular mechanisms, including nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase, nuclear receptor-related 1 (Nurr1), adenosine receptor A2, nicotine receptor, metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs), and glucocerebrosidase (GCase). Also, immunotherapy and common pathological mechanisms shared with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and diabetes have attracted much attention. In this review, we summarized the development of preclinical and clinical studies of novel drugs and the improvement of dopaminergic drugs to provide a prospect for PD treatment.

Keywords: Clinical trials; New drug development; PD treatment; Parkinson's disease; α-Synuclein.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / drug therapy*
  • Animals
  • Dopaminergic Neurons / drug effects*
  • Humans
  • NADPH Oxidases / drug effects
  • Parkinson Disease / drug therapy*
  • Parkinson Disease / pathology
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations*
  • Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate / drug effects

Substances

  • Pharmaceutical Preparations
  • Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate
  • NADPH Oxidases