Study supports possible role of urate in slowing Parkinson's disease progression

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/mgh-ssp100909.php

Public release date: 12-Oct-2009
Contact: Sue McGreevey
Massachusetts General Hospital
Study supports possible role of urate in slowing Parkinson's disease progression
Results confirm those of 2008 study, clinical trial is underway

By examining data from a 20-year-old clinical trial, a research team based at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MGH-MIND) and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), has found evidence supporting the findings of their 2008 study – that elevated levels of the antioxidant urate may slow the progression of Parkinson's disease. The report – which will appear in the December 2009 Archives of Neurology and has been released online – analyzed blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples from participants in a 1980s trail of potential Parkinson's medications, confirming the previous study's findings in a totally different group of patients.

"These results were critically important. Only now we can be reasonably sure that the slower rate of progression in patients with higher concentrations of urate is real and not a chance occurrence," says Alberto Ascherio, MD, DrPh, of HSPH, the new study's lead author.

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