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<title>Immune-suppressing drugs linked to lower risk of Parkinsons disease | National Institutes of Health (NIH)</title>
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<p class="publishdate"><span property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2018-06-26T00:00:00-04:00" class="date-display-single">June 26, 2018</span></p><div class='syndicate'><h1>Immune-suppressing drugs linked to lower risk of Parkinsons disease</h1><div class="callout callout-with-border"><h3>At a Glance</h3>
<ul>
<li>An analysis of prescription data showed that older adults who take certain drugs that suppress the immune system were less likely to develop Parkinsons disease.</li>
<li>The findings suggest that the immune system may play a role in the early stages of Parkinsons disease</li>
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</picture><span class="caption">People with Parkinsons disease may find it difficult to walk. </span><span class="credit">Steve Mason/Photodisc/Thinkstock</span></div>
</div><p>Parkinsons disease starts when nerve cells in the brain become impaired and gradually die. As these cells die, people with the disease may notice a tremor in a hand. Later, they may develop involuntary shaking elsewhere, muscle stiffness, slowed movements, problems with balance, and other symptoms. As a result, it may become difficult to get dressed, talk, and walk. Although treatment with medicines or surgery can help with these symptoms, there are no methods to cure or slow progression of the disease.</p>
<p>One possible reason that scientists havent yet found ways to slow the progression of Parkinsons disease might be that promising medicines were tested too late in the disease process. In previous work, a research team led by Dr. Brad A. Racette at Washington University School of Medicine developed a computer model to identify people with undiagnosed Parkinsons disease using U.S. Medicare claims data. The model correctly predicted that people who were treated for early disease symptoms such as falling were more likely than others to be diagnosed with Parkinsons disease.</p>
<p>To add another dimension to their model, the researchers examined Medicare prescription data. The teams previous analyses had suggested that people with autoimmune diseases, in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the bodys own tissues, had a lower risk of developing Parkinsons disease. Suspecting that the drugs used to treat these diseases might play a role, they explored the possible links between drugs that suppress the immune system and the diagnosis of Parkinsons disease. The study was supported in part by NIHs National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Results appeared online on May 31, 2018, in the <em>Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology</em>.</p>
<p>The researchers used claims data for more than 48,000 people, aged 65 to 90, who were newly diagnosed with Parkinsons disease in 2009. The control group was more than 52,000 randomly selected adults who had not been diagnosed with Parkinsons disease. The team examined the use of 26 immune-suppressing drugs belonging to six categories. The uses of these drugs include fighting inflammation and helping prevent the body from rejecting donor organs.</p>
<p>The researchers found a substantially lower risk of developing Parkinsons disease among people who used either of two categories of immune-suppressing drugs: corticosteroids (about 20% lower) or inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase inhibitors (about 36% lower). For people who took both, the risk of the disease was even lower. Four other categories of immune-suppressing drugs did not show as much change in risk.</p>
<p>These findings suggest that the immune system may play a role in the development of Parkinsons disease in older adults. By dampening the immune system, certain drugs may lower the risk of the disease. However, further study will be needed to confirm these findings.</p>
<p>“Its a reasonable assumption that if a drug reduces the risk of getting Parkinsons, it also will slow disease progression, and were exploring that now,” Racette says. “Our next step is to conduct a proof-of-concept study with people newly diagnosed with Parkinsons disease to see whether these drugs have the effect on the immune system that wed expect.”</p>
<p>—by Geri Piazza</p></div><h2 class="label-above">Related Links</h2><ul class="spaced print-urls"><li><a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/immune-response-linked-parkinsons-disease" target="_top">Immune Response Linked to Parkinsons Disease</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/molecule-may-impact-gaucher-parkinsons-disease" target="_top">Molecule May Impact Gaucher, Parkinsons Disease</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/adaptive-deep-brain-stimulation-parkinsons-disease" target="_top">Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinsons Disease</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/tracking-parkinsonian-disease-progression" target="_top">Tracking Parkinsonian Disease Progression</a></li><li><a href="https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2014/11/parkinsons-disease" target="_top">Parkinsons Disease: Understanding a Complicated Condition</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/All-Disorders/Parkinsons-Disease-Information-Page" target="_top">Parkinsons Disease</a></li></ul><p class="footnote"><strong class="label-inline">References:&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acn3.580">Immunosuppressants and Risk of Parkinson Disease.</a> Racette BA, Gross A, Vouri SM, Camacho-Soto A, Willis AW, Nielsen SS. <em>Ann Clin Transl Neurol.</em> 2018 May 31. doi: 10.1002/acn3.580.</p><p class="footnote"><strong class="label-inline">Funding:&nbsp;</strong>NIHs National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); Michael J. Fox Foundation; American Parkinson Disease Foundation; and University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.</p>
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