Can anti-diabetic drugs delay the onset of Parkinson’s? This was asked by a group of Italian researchers, who published a study on Journal of Neurology: Data show a six-year delay in the mean age of onset of symptoms – 66 years compared to 60 – in those taking metformin, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus. According to Gianni Pezzoli, first author of the research and president of the Grisons Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease and of the Italian Parkinsonian Association, the results suggest a possible neuro-protective property of anti-diabetic drugs, which however – it is important to underline this – has yet to be investigated and demonstrated . In fact, the study shows only a statistical correlation, which is very different from a cause-and-effect relationship, for which further studies will be needed.
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Data from the study
The researchers’ hypothesis is based in part on previously published data regarding the possible neuro-protective abilities (observed in animal models) of metformin. The scientists then analyzed data collected between 2010 and 2019 on 8,120 Parkinson’s patients. Of these, 413 patients were also diabetic and were taking drugs to treat this pathology. In the 7,707 non-diabetic patients, Parkinson’s disease developed shortly after the age of 60, while in the diabetic and treated patients, it occurred on average after the age of 66. “The data collected – says Pezzoli – are very significant and prompt us to investigate not only the preventive capacity of anti-diabetic drugs but also their possible role in reducing the progression of Parkinson’s when it has already arisen”.
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Future prospects
The study, according to Pezzoli, would therefore open up the prospect of administering some anti-diabetic medicines also to people who do not have this disease, but who are instead predisposed to developing Parkinson’s, with the aim of delaying its onset. “This publication – affirms Ioannis Isaias, director of the Parkinson and parkinsonism center of the ASST Gaetano Pini-CTO of Milan – lays the foundations for the launch of comparative clinical studies in which to administer anti-diabetic medicines to people with of Parkinson’s risk, such as the presence of the disease in the family, or symptoms prior to the onset of the disease such as ‘nocturnal agitation’, reduced sense of smell, and even more generic ‘signs’ such as constipation and mild depression ”.
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No conclusions can be drawn, but the research certainly has the merit of opening many questions, for example on what could be the mechanism underlying the observed correlation. “There are many anti-diabetic drugs, so it’s very difficult to give an answer for each individual drug,” he says Salute Pezzoli – We prefer to refer to metformin alone, which is a widely studied drug on the market for over 60 years, which can also be used in non-diabetic subjects because it does not lower blood sugar. This could reduce the activity of cytochrome 1 (a particular protein, ed.) of the cellular respiratory chain which is hyperactive in conditions of oxidative stress, such as in neurodegenerative diseases”.