The results from a phase 2 trial, co-funded by Cure Parkinson’s, the US Van Andel Institute and the French Ministry of Health, evaluating Sanofi’s diabetes drug, Lyxumia (lixisenatide), have shown promise in slowing down the progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Since 2018, the investigator-led LixiPark trial has evaluated the efficacy and safety of Lyxumia in 156 people living with PD whose symptoms had been stabilised using standard antiparkinsonian drugs.
Affecting more than 8.5 million individuals worldwide in 2019, according to estimates by the World Health Organization, PD is a neurodegenerative, progressive disorder that predominantly affects the dopamine-producing neurons in the brain’s substantia nigra.
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, results from the trial showed that the group of 75 patients receiving once-daily subcutaneous injections with Lyxumia saw no worsening of their motor symptoms over 12 months versus placebo, who experienced a 3.04-point MDS-UPDRS III motor score decline.
In addition, after 12 months, the effect on disease progression was significantly reduced in patients receiving the drug.
Already approved in more than 60 countries, including the EU and Japan, the GLP-1 antagonist is currently indicated to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, as well as to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in some overweight patients.
More recently, Lyxumia has been shown to reduce kidney-disease-related events in individuals with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
According to previous studies, activating GLP-1 receptors in the brain helps to boost the function of dopamine connections, has anti-inflammatory properties, improves energy production and can switch on cell survival signals.
Professor Tom Foltynie, neurology specialist, University College London, commented: “This cumulative clinical data… strongly supports the earlier laboratory and epidemiological data that GLP-1 receptor stimulation in the brain has neuroprotective effects relevant to the neurodegenerative processes of PD.”
Toulouse University Hospital’s professors, Wassilios Meissner and Olivier Rascol, who led the trial, said that the results “constitute a significant step forward in the future management of the disease” and that they “look forward to confirming these encouraging results in the future in order to translate such findings into clinical practice”.