Abstract Details

PD is the world's second most common neurodegenerative illness and one of the most prevalent movement abnormalities. Existing treatments are primarily aimed at symptom management and come with various side effects. Lewy bodies were discovered to be aggregated forms of alpha-synuclein, a pathological characteristic of PD. Therefore, halting the aggregation can help reduce disease progression. Recent evidence suggests monoclonal antibodies inhibit alpha-synuclein propagation and aggregation in PD and ameliorate the resultant cytotoxicity in models as well as patients.

The goal of the study is to review the effects of monoclonal antibodies as a disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD).

PubMed and clinicaltrials.gov were used as search engines to review all existing data in English. Two clinical trials were found between 2010-2021. Keywords used were "Parkinson's disease", "monoclonal antibodies", "therapeutic benefit".

In the PASADENA trial, cerebrospinal fluid levels of monoclonal antibodies had increased in concentration. Therefore, binding was effective to alpha-synuclein aggregates. PRX002 was well tolerated, with only 5% of participants experiencing side effects. No antibodies against PRX002 were detected in the serum. The pharmacokinetic characteristics of the patients and controls in the BlIB054 trial were identical in terms of serum exposure, maximal concentration, serum half-life, and cerebrospinal fluid to serum ratio. The drug alpha-synuclein complex found in the patient's plasma was saturated. However, no mention is made of efficacy in terms of symptom amelioration.

We for all intents and purposes know very little about the clinical efficacy and safety of monoclonal antibodies. Further research would lead to disease-modifying treatments that could slow the progression of Parkinson's disease.