Elevated urate levels may slow the progression of Parkinson's disease

“These findings, combined with prior knowledge of urate’s protective properties in laboratory studies, raise the possibility that urate-elevating strategies could be used to slow the neurodegeneration of Parkinson’s disease,” says Michael Schwarzschild, MD, PhD, of MGH-MIND, the study’s lead author. “Potential benefits of urate have to be tempered against the known risks of elevated urate levels, which include gout and kidney stones. From what we know now, urate elevation should only be attempted in the context of a closely monitored clinical trial, in which potential benefits and risks are carefully balanced.”

Schwarzschild and Ascherio, with an award from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, are teaming up with Parkinson Study Group doctors from across the country to conduct a multicenter Phase 2 trial, being announced by the Foundation today. Ninety people newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s but not yet needing treatment will be treated with the urate precursor inosine or a placebo. Information about trial enrollment will be available later this year at www.pdtrials.org.

Schwarzschild is an associate professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Ascherio is an associate professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health. Additional co-authors of the report are Steven Schwid, MD, Arthur Watts, PhD, David Oakes, PhD, and Ira Shoulson, MD, University of Rochester; Kenneth Marek, MD, Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders, New Haven, Conn.; and Anthony Lang, MD, Toronto Western Hospital. The Archives of Neurology study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Beeson Scholars Program of the American Federation for Aging Research.

Harvard School of Public Health (www.hsph.harvard.edu) is dedicated to advancing the public's health through learning, discovery, and communication. More than 400 faculty members are engaged in teaching and training the 1,000-plus student body in a broad spectrum of disciplines crucial to the health and well being of individuals and populations around the world. Programs and projects range from the molecular biology of AIDS vaccines to the epidemiology of cancer; from risk analysis to violence prevention; from maternal and children's health to quality of care measurement; from health care management to international health and human rights.

Massachusetts General Hospital (www.massgeneral.org), established in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $500 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine.