APOMYL
Research type
Research Study
Full title
APOmorphine treatment and aMYLoid deposition in Parkinson’s disease patients (APOMYL)
IRAS ID
214953
Contact name
K Ray Chaudhuri
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 28 days
Research summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is classically seen as a movement disorder caused by degeneration of some brain structures and decreased dopamine. Current therapies focus mainly on the classic motor symptoms, like shaking, stiffness, and slowness of movement and include mainly dopaminergic drugs like levodopa. Apomorphine is also a dopaminergic drug that it is usually prescribed for advanced stages. It is now widely acknowledged that PD patients suffer from several non-motor symptoms which significantly decrease their quality of life. Up to 80% of patients will develop significant memory problems during the course of the disease. The treatment of non-motor symptoms remains challenging and difficult.
Studies have shown that in some patients this occurs or is made more severe due to the level of beta-amyloid in the brain. A study using animal models showed that treatment with apomorphine resulted in improved memory function and less beta-amyloid deposition. A very recent study that looked at the structure of the brain of post-mortem PD patients showed that some patients treated with apomorphine had less beta-amyloid deposition. This observations were not noted in patients that had already significant memory problems (e.g. dementia) when they were treated with apomorphine, suggesting that the role of apomorphine might be more important when it is used in an early stage.
We think the next step would be to confirm these preliminary observations in PD patients. To do so, we would like to study PD patients that are treated with subcutaneous apomorphine using modern imaging techniques (positron emission tomography (PET) scans). We would compare amyloid PET retention of patients on subcutaneous apomorphine with patients on conventional therapy. Potential participants will be approached if they had performed an amyloid scan recently.
REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0287
Date of REC Opinion
24 Aug 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion