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A study published in February in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that doxycycline, an antibiotic used against bacterial infections for over a half-century, can be prescribed at lower doses for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
According to the authors, doxycycline reduces the toxicity of α-synuclein, a protein that, under certain conditions, forms abnormal accumulations of aggregates in central nervous system cells, which are damaged as a result. The death of dopaminergic neurons (which produce the neurotransmitter dopamine) is the main event relating to the development of symptoms including tremor, slow voluntary movement and stiffness, among others. There are currently no drugs capable of halting the progress of this degenerative process.
Three Brazilian scientists participated in the study, which was supported by FAPESP: Elaine Del-Bel, affiliated with the University of São Paulo's Ribeirão Preto Dental School (FORP-USP), and Leandro R. S. Barbosa and Rosangela Itri, at the same university's Physics Institute (IF-USP) in the city of São Paulo.
