Background: The majority of current pharmacological treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD) were approved for clinical use in the second half of the last century and they only provide symptomatic relief. Derivatives of these therapies continue to be explored in clinical trials, together with potentially disease modifying therapies that can slow, stop or reverse the condition. Objective: To provide an overview of the pharmacological therapies-both symptomatic and disease modifying-currently being clinically evaluated for PD, with the goal of creating greater awareness and opportunities for collaboration amongst commercial and academic researchers as well as between the research and patient communities. Methods: We conducted a review of clinical trials of drug therapies for PD using trial data obtained from the ClinicalTrials.gov database and performed a breakdown analysis of studies that were active as of January 21, 2020. Results: We identified 145 registered and ongoing clinical trials for therapeutics targeting PD, of which 51 were Phase 1 (35% of the total number of trials), 66 were Phase 2 (46%), and 28 were Phase 3 (19%). There were 57 trials (39%) focused on long-term disease modifying therapies, with the remaining 88 trials (61%) focused on therapies for symptomatic relief. A total of 50 (34%) trials were testing repurposed therapies. Conclusion: There is a broad pipeline of both symptomatic and disease modifying therapies currently being tested in clinical trials for PD.

Previous studies in humans with breast, colorectal or liver cancer showed that neoplasia was associated with a modification of the blood ratio between Cu and Cu (∂Cu). The aim of the present study was to compare the blood ∂Cu of dogs with cancer to healthy controls or dogs with non-oncologic disease. One hundred and seventeen dogs were included in the study (35 dogs with cancer, 33 dogs with non-neoplastic disease, and 49 healthy controls). The ∂Cu of dogs with cancer was significantly lower than the ratio of healthy controls (P < 0.0001) but not significantly different from dogs with non-oncologic disease. Six dogs with lymphoma were also evaluated after they achieved clinical remission and five out of six had an increase of ∂Cu. Further studies are warranted but these results suggest that ∂Cu could help in the diagnosis of cancer in a controlled clinical context, and may be a potential biomarker for the follow-up of cancer.

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Background: Since 2020, annual reports on the clinical development of new drug-based therapies for the neurodegenerative condition of Parkinson’s disease (PD) have been generated. These reviews have followed the progress of both “symptomatic treatments” (ST – improves/reduces symptoms of the condition) and “disease modifying treatments” (DMT - attempts to delay/slow progression by addressing the underlying biology of PD). Additional efforts have been made to further categorize these experimental treatments based on their mechanisms of action and class of drug. Methods: A dataset of clinical trials for drug therapies in PD was obtained using trial data downloaded from the ClinicalTrials.gov online registry. A breakdown analysis of all the studies that were active as of January 31st, 2023, was conducted. Results: There was a total of 139 clinical trials registered on the ClinicalTrials.gov website as active (with 35 trials newly registered since our last report). Of these trials, 76 (55%) were considered ST and 63 (45%) were designated DMT. Similar to previous years, approximately a third of the studies were in Phase 1 (n = 47; 34%), half (n = 72, 52%) were in Phase 2 and there were 20 (14%) studies in Phase 3. Novel therapies again represented the most dominant group of experimental treatments in this year’s report with 58 (42%) trials testing new agents. Repurposed drugs are present in a third (n = 49, 35%) of trials, with reformulations and new claims representing 19% and 4% of studies, respectively. Conclusions: Our fourth annual review of active clinical trials evaluating ST and DMT therapeutics for PD demonstrates that the drug development pipeline is dynamic and evolving. The slow progress and lack of agents transitioning from Phase 2 to Phase 3 is concerning, but collective efforts by various stakeholders are being made to accelerate the clinical trial process, with the aim of bringing new therapies to the PD community sooner.

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