Parkinson's disease drug ropinirole safely slows the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, finds clinical trial

Medical Xpress / Cell Press / Cell Stem Cell ^ | June 1, 2023 | Hideyuki Okano et al

[ConservativeMind]

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a fatal motor neuron disease that causes people to gradually lose control of their muscles. There is no cure, and current treatments focus on reducing symptoms and providing supportive care. Researchers show in an early clinical trial that the Parkinson's disease drug ropinirole is safe to use in ALS patients and delayed disease progression by 27.9 weeks on average.

The trial was double blinded for the first 24 weeks, meaning that the patients and doctors did not know which patients were receiving ropinirole and which were receiving a placebo. No patients dropped out due to safety reasons.

Patients who received ropinirole during both phases of the trial were more physically active than patients in the placebo group. They also showed slower rates of decline in mobility, muscle strength, and lung function, and they were more likely to survive.

Specifically, motor neurons grown from ALS patients had shorter neurites compared to healthy motor neurons, but these axons grew to a more normal length when the cells were treated with ropinirole.

"We found a very striking correlation between a patient's clinical response and the response of their motor neurons in vitro," says Morimoto. "Patients whose motor neurons responded robustly to ropinirole in vitro had a much slower clinical disease progression with ropinirole treatment, while suboptimal responders showed much more rapid disease progression despite taking ropinirole."

The researchers say that this suggests that this method—of growing and testing motor neurons from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells—could be used clinically to predict how effective the drug would be for a given patient. It's unclear why some patients are more responsive to ropinirole than others, but the researchers think that it's probably due to genetic differences that they hope to pinpoint in future studies.

[ConservativeMind]

This available treatment only helps extend progression by about 28 weeks, but for ALS, that’s a long time.

[ConservativeMind]

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[montag813]

Just to eat as much fatty fish, egg yolks and avocados as you can. Start today

[philman_36]

Will it fix this? I WOULD NOT PLAN MOTHERHOOD WITH A 'VACCINATED' MAN PATHOLOGIST - ARNE BURKHARDT

He's dead now.
Rest In Peace Dr Arne Burkhardt who pioneered work in the pathology of the COVID "vaccines"

[Ronin]

I’ll be checking it out. I was diagnosed with ALS in February and have been taking acupuncture treatments for it. Last month I tried Radicava for a couple of days, but it worsened my symptoms and caused me to lose my balance, resulting in a very nasty fall.

Relyvrio is not available in Japan yet, but I’m hoping to get it through the VA once I get access to the hospital at Yokota Air Base.

[Ronin]

Lots of fish, check!
Four eggs a day, check!
Nix on avocados. Allergy there.

[ConservativeMind]

This medicine is available as a generic and the extended release form is less than $50 on GoodRX, in the States.

Please see if your doctor will provide you a prescription. The 28 weeks mentioned was an average between those who did great with it and those who had no response, so if you were blessed to be a responder, that 28 weeks could be many months longer.