This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Glitazone therapy may lower risk for Parkinson’s in adults with diabetes
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Adults with diabetes using a glitazone drug are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease when compared with adults with diabetes using other therapies, according to research in PLOS Medicine.
In a retrospective cohort analysis of electronic health records from adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, researchers also found that the protective effects were observed only in patients currently using a glitazone, and not in patients who stopped or switched to another antidiabetic medication.
Glitazone drugs have been shown to have several neuroprotective properties, including increasing brain mitochondrial biogenesis and the expression of antioxidant enzymes and antiapoptotic factors, according to study background. Currently, there are no published data available on whether glitazone drugs are protective against Parkinson’s disease.
Ruth Brauer, PhD, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and colleagues analyzed the electronic health data from the U.K. Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) of 44,597 adults with diabetes newly prescribed a glitazone. Researchers matched participants by age, sex, practice location and diabetes treatment stage with up to five individuals who were prescribed a diabetes treatment other than a glitazone (n = 120,373). Researchers followed patients from 1999 until a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis or the end of the study in August 2013.
Within the glitazone cohort, 175 participants were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease; 517 participants in the non-glitazone group were diagnosed. After multivariable adjustment, researchers found the incidence rate of Parkinson’s disease in the glitazone group was 6.4 per 10,000 patient-years vs. 8.8 per 10,000 patient-years in the non-glitazone group (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.72; 95% CI, 0.6-0.87). Researchers said no significant association was found for past exposure to glitazone treatment and protection from Parkinson’s disease.
“We have shown for the first time that in individuals with diabetes, a prescription for [glitazone] is associated with a 28% lower rate of clinical presentation of [Parkinson’s disease] compared with those prescribed other antidiabetic agents,” the researchers wrote. “Our results suggest that the protective association is limited to periods of glitazone treatment, with little or no longer-lasting benefit.”
Researchers noted that the study did not include participants who had Parkinson’s disease when first prescribed a glitazone drug; therefore, it remained unclear if the drug prevents or slows the progression of the disease. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: Brauer reports no relevant financial disclosures. One study author reports receiving research funding from GlaxoSmithKline; a second author reported previous consulting for and holding stock in GlaxoSmithKline.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts