Sky News reported this morning (10/2/2021) that Cambridge University have made a “major breakthrough” in finding a cure for Parkinsons. There have been false dawns before but they seem very confident but no timescales are mentioned.
Has anyone else seen this reported elsewhere
Let’s pray this has credence
Hi @davech,
Thanks for sharing this information with the forum, I’m sure it will be of interest to other members.
We thought you’d be interested to know that the article featured on Sky News is based on recent research results from UK based researchers wanting to understand more about a protein that can cause problems inside brain cells.
Understanding more about this protein is vital if we’re going to develop Parkinson’s treatments that block it’s harmful effects without interfering with it’s normal function.
You can read the news and further comments on this via the Parkinson’s UK website here - https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/news/further-clues-about-alpha-synuclein
Best wishes,
Reah
This recent Cambridge research “in understanding the role of a key protein called alpha-synuclein” in PD, is very much in tune with this Ambroxol for PD study statement:
“Upregulation of brain cytosolic/lysosomal GCase activity may reduce α-synuclein levels, mediating a neuroprotective effect in patients with PD both with and without GBA1 mutations…Ambroxol administration has also been reported to increase GCase activity and reduce α-synuclein levels in vitro and in vivo.”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2758317
Very glad I have stuck with Ambroxol for a year now, which is still consistently keeping me clear of brain fog, reducing my freezing episodes and their severity, benefiting me in some small motor functions like typing and facial animation, eliminating my shoulder nerve pain, and enabling me to stay on a lower dose of meds (& fewer). For me that is slowing my PD progression. Very much looking forward to further research confirmation next year when the findings on Ambroxol for PD dementia are published (link below).
In the meantime, I plan to absolutely continue taking Ambroxol (which my neurologist is aware and is fine with), as there is no way I’m going to risk it becoming more irreversable as the scientists postulate below, with something as well tolerated as it is:
“…it is not known when during the natural history of PD the first intracerebral α‐synuclein pathology appears and whether there is a “point of no return” beyond which the damage to the neural systems affected by synucleinopathy can no longer be protected or revived, even with the most effective therapies. As mentioned earlier, it is currently believed that α‐synuclein pathology begins to develop during the PD prodrome, and by the time motor symptoms have appeared the aggregates are widespread in the brain.”
https://movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mds.27414
PS, as a kid I watched my maternal grandmother die slowly from PD as she fell into severe dementia from it, and then I watched my mom slowly die from dementia over a number of years. We have better medicines today to hold off what happened to my grandmother, but there’s no way I’m going to stop taking Ambroxol if there is even the slightest chance it is found to be 1/2 as effective as I think it is in slowing PD progression.
Does Ambroxol help with involuntary and uncontrollable movement (dyskinesia)
This is very interesting. Can you let me know where I can obtain Ambroxol in the UK. Thank you.
if you search on Ambroxol, you can find it in the UK, can’t say more without breaking forum rules.
I really don’t know if Ambroxol can help dyskinesia - involuntary movements - caused by taking Levodopa long term, as at least in the year and a half I have been taking Carbadopa/Levodopa, and year I have been taking Ambroxol, I do not really have dyskinesia symptoms yet. Perhaps I have not been taking Levodopa long enough to have developed them yet, or perhaps the low dose I remain on (thanks to Ambroxol in my opinion), or perhaps Ambroxol itself is helping me mitigate developing them as fast as I would otherwise. I really can’t say, but my cognitive benefits from taking Amrbroxol are profound, so hopefully that is helping me from developing them. Not sure if that helps, but that’s really all I can say about it.
Herbal alternative for you: Research on Gastrodia elata (GEB) suggests possible benefit for L-dopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) and abnormal involuntary movements (AIM)
“The finding of this study demonstrated that GEB (200, 400 and 800 mg/kg) alleviated L-dopa induced AIMs in a dose-dependent manner. In each integrative AIM subtype analysis, we also found that the GEB (400 and 800 mg/kg) treatment decreased L-DOPA-induced axial, limb, orolingual, and locomotive AIMs compared to the LID group. In addition, GEB normalized the abnormal LID-induced increase of pERK1/2 and FosB, the immediate early genes of LID in the striatum.”
https://bmccomplementmedtherapies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6882-14-107
I have indeed used it safely as an herbal supplement for PD, but not for dyskinesia given my lack of that symptom, but apparently it really works for it!
summary of 2020 movement disorder research progress in the link below, including Ambroxol & Nilotinib
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(20)30448-8/fulltext
