Older Ozempic-like Drug Shows Promise in Slowing Parkinson's Disease

A new clinical trial is giving hope to those recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, showing that a GLP-1 receptor drug may slow the progression of symptoms that affect fine motor skills by having a protective response on the nervous system. The drug, lixisenatide, has been on the market for years and as it continues to be studied, there could be promise with other GLP-1 receptors like semaglutide, the ingredient in popular drug Ozempic.

The lixisenatide study included those with early-stage Parkinson’s disease and found that those given the type 2 diabetes drug showed no deterioration of motor skills after 12 months. The link between Parkinson’s and diabetes can be attributed to several factors:

• Insulin resistance and glucose dysregulation- When cells become resistant to insulin, it leads to elevated blood glucose levels which can then lead to prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes over time.
• Inflammation and oxidative stress- Inflammation processes in the brain may play a key role in the progression of Parkinson’s disease, and there is growing evidence linking inflammation to insulin resistance in diabetes.
• Shared genetic risk factors- Growing evidence suggests that those with diabetes have a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease and vice versa.
• Mitochondria dysfunction- Mitochondrial dysfunction is when the cells that produce energy malfunction and are unable to properly burn food and oxygen necessary to generate energy that is essential to normal cell function. This dysfunction is a key factor in insulin resistance and diabetes, as well as nerve signal degeneration in the brain that is the distinctive factor in Parkinson’s disease.
• Alpha-synuclein (aSyn) pathology- aSyn is type of protein found in nerve cells that is genetically and neuropathologically linked to Parkinson’s disease. Research points to this type of tissue found in the pancreatic cells of those with diabetes. Further research needs to be done on aSyn’s presence in diabetes and its potential link to Parkinson’s disease.

Larger and more lengthy studies are planned to further investigate the correlation between GLP-1 medications and the decreased progression of symptoms in those with Parkinson’s disease, but early findings are encouraging.