Antibodies for Parkinson's, Possible Vaccinations, and the Movement Disorder Society

The benefit of an anitbody that could access the central nervous system (CNS) to treat toxic proteins prevalent in Parkinson's disease (PD) is pretty obvious.

Though PRX002 only just completed a successful, Phase II-B trial to test its safety, Anthony Lang, MD, FRCPC, is willing to speak about the treatment's clinical potential.

"If it is effective, it should have an impact on all the aspects of Parkinson's disease," Lang said. "This is one of the advantages of a treatment that is directed at the pathogynesis of the disease."

Lang, professor and director of the Department of Neurology at the University of Toronto, spoke about the promising antibody study at the 21st International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders in Vancouver, BC. He said such an anitbody treatment with CNS access could help treat both motor and nonmotor symptoms of the neurological disorder. But diagnostic markers are too few — and treatments too uncertain — for a future vaccination to even be consider for PD patients.

"This is a very costly and invasive treatment," Lang said about PRX002. "So that kind of thing is not going to impact preventing Parkinson's on that kind of scale."