I didn't expect that the medicine originally treated diabetes would actually have a certain curative effect on Parkinson's disease!

Recently, a study jointly published by Olivier Rascol, a professor at Toulouse University Hospital, and Wassilios Meissner, a professor at Bordeaux University Hospital, in the “New England Journal of Medicine” showed that the diabetes drug lixisenatide effectively stabilized the symptoms of Parkinson's disease patients during a one-year trial. This is a blessing for the medical community and about 10 million Parkinson's patients around the world.

“If the trial data is confirmed, the quality of life of Parkinson's patients will improve significantly,” the Rascol research team emphasized.

The diabetes drug lixisenatide, which is the main protagonist of this study, is actually one type of GLP-1 drug.

As an important drug for lowering sugar and losing weight, GLP-1 drugs have received much attention and achieved remarkable development in recent years. By simulating the effects of insulin-like polypeptide-1 (GLP-1) in humans, these drugs can effectively lower blood sugar levels and improve patients' quality of life.

As early as 2009, the Danish pharmaceutical giant$Novo-Nordisk A/S (NVO.US)$The developed GLP-1 drug lixisenatide was approved to treat type 2 diabetes in Europe and the US. subsequently$Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US)$Pharmaceuticals are also speeding up the development of GLP-1 drugs.

When developing GLP-1 drugs, pharmaceutical giants also test whether the drug will work on other diseases, and it was found that it also has potential curative effects on cardiovascular disease and Parkinson's disease.

The research results have also greatly encouraged pharmaceutical giants to use one medicine for two, and proper cash cow. Currently, in addition to lixisenatide, Novo Nordisk is also developing GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy. Eli Lilly also produced Mounjaro and Zepbound riders.

This has also brought GLP-1 drugs back into the spotlight, and Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly's market capitalization has also risen steeply due to soaring drug sales.

However, Rascol also cautioned:

“Since it is difficult for some GLP-1 drugs to cross the blood-brain barrier, the efficacy of treating Parkinson's disease is limited, and attention must be paid to side effects in clinical application, such as nausea in more than 45% of patients and vomiting in 13% of patients. Therefore, new drug research still needs more testing to confirm it.”

However, with the further development of pharmaceutical research, I believe Parkinson's disease, which has always plagued humans, is expected to usher in a new dawn.

edit/emily