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In patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), levodopa (l-dopa) treatment can induce dyskinesias. Building on promising work in animal models, researchers have evaluated the use of eltoprazine, a selective partial agonist at the 5-HT1A and 5-HT1B receptors, for its ability to counteract this distressing side effect.
In a Phase I/IIa study published in Brain (online, 10 February 2015)[1]
, 22 PD patients were randomised to receive a single oral dose of eltoprazine or placebo. Following levodopa challenge, eltoprazine 5mg and 7.5mg caused a significant reduction in l-dopa-induced dyskinesias, without altering normal motor responses to therapy. The most frequent adverse effects were nausea and dizziness.
“If our initial findings can be confirmed, this type of therapeutic principle can be of immense clinical benefit to a particularly vulnerable patient group,” says lead author Per Svenningsson.
