A “breakthrough” in treating a symptom of Parkinson’s disease? This Monday, November 6, three French-speaking researchers published the results of an experiment in the journal Nature Medicine. French and Swiss neuroscientists have found a method to correct gait disorders in patients. And this, thanks to an implant.
Parkinson’s, known in particular for causing tremors in affected people, is a neurodegenerative disease that slowly damages certain regions of the brain.
In 80-90% of cases, when the disease reaches an advanced stage, it generates gait disorders that “many times resist currently available treatments,” as the specialists summarize in a statement.
More specifically, patients lose fluidity, are at risk of falling, or experience “freezing,” “when the feet remain glued to the ground while walking.”
“These are symptoms that alter the daily lives of patients,” Erwan Bezard, research director at Inserm, the CNRS institute of neurodegenerative diseases and the University of Bordeaux, summarizes to BFMTV.
a piece of plastic
Until now, the treatments used against the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease have not been able to combat this aspect. Therefore, researchers turned to a proven technique that allows people to regain walking after paralysis due to spinal cord injuries.
“We thought that perhaps we could apply these same concepts to improve the gait of people with Parkinson’s disease,” says Grégoire Courtine, professor of neuroscience at EPFL and Vaud University Hospital (CHUV). Research work started in 2009.
How does it work? An implant summarized by researchers as “a piece of plastic with electrodes” is placed in the lower part of the spinal cord, the part that controls the legs.
Its operation “is very similar to that of a pacemaker,” emphasizes Jocelyne Bloch, a neurosurgeon from Lausanne and professor at CHUV. In short, it sends small electric shocks to stimulate the functioning of the legs. The patient, however, voluntarily controls his actions.
“(The patient) has a small box. He presses a button and activates the stimulation, he can choose different programs (…) Once he has activated the stimulation, he no longer has to think about it,” adds Grégoire. Courtina.
A first conclusive experiment
This implant has already been used for the first time on Marc, a 62-year-old patient who has been living with the disease for three decades. He underwent surgery two years ago in Lausanne to have this new neuroprosthesis placed.
After a few weeks of rehabilitation, Marc regained almost normal walking. He to the point of being able to take 6 km solo walks along Lake Geneva. A “spectacular” result both for its effectiveness and its speed that surprised the researchers. The side effects seem limited: the patient states that he sometimes feels a “tingling that is not unpleasant,” as reported by Jocelyne Bloch.
“Two years have passed since we implanted the patient who still has a clear benefit as his disease progresses, Parkinson’s disease being a slowly progressive disease,” he adds.
A result to consolidate
Marc’s case is more than encouraging. But this unique result requires corroboration by other experiments and the publication of additional studies. The researchers hope to multiply the tests to confirm their results and next year six new patients will be implanted.
These new tests will allow us to be “even more precise” when it comes to knowing the scope of this device’s performance. “Two studies are planned, so we can expect that within 4 or 5 years it will be available to patients in real life,” hopes Erwan Bezard.
Beyond the treatment of people with Parkinson’s, researchers hypothesize a treatment used for other pathologies that cause gait disorders. But in this regard, “we should not skip steps or offer false hopes,” the Inserm research director cautiously indicates.
Source: BFM TV
