IU Seeks Participants For Huntington, Parkinson Diseases Studies
INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana University Center for Movement Disorders
is recruiting participants for four clinical trials for Parkinson disease
and three for Huntington disease.
A National Institutes of Health-funded trial will look at various drugs
approved for other conditions but which appear to have a mechanism that
could slow the progression of Parkinson disease. The first compounds to
be considered at IU will be minocycline, an antibiotic commonly used to
treat acne, and creatine. Participants enrolled in that trial will take
the medications for six months.
Several other drug compounds will be tested over the six-to-eight-year
course of this multi-center, Phase II trial. All participants must be
in the early stages of Parkinson disease and not yet in need of medication.
Beginning in July is a trial known as POETRY, which will evaluate the
effect of estrogen on women with Parkinson disease. Participants should
have moderate to advanced disease, be post-menopausal and not on hormone
replacement therapy or tamoxifen. To be eligible, women must not have
had a heart attack, breast or uterine cancer or problems with blood clots.
This trial is funded by the Rosalyn Newman Philanthropic Fund of the
Jewish Communal Fund, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
In the third trial, IU researchers will conduct a 14-week, placebo-controlled
trial of a drug that may help the early symptoms of Parkinson. Participants
must be in the early stages of the disease. They should be on only a small
amout or on no Parkinson disease medication. The Phase II trial is funded
by Boehringer-Ingelheim.
IU researchers continue seeking siblings with Parkinson disease as part
of an NIH-funded project called PROGENI. By identifying and studying families
with at least two living siblings with the disease, researchers will identify
genes that may make people susceptible to the disorder.
IU researchers are seeking participants for a 12-week trial of tentrabenzaine,
a drug that may reduce involuntary movements (chorea) in Huntington disease
patients.
Participants should have moderate to severe chorea, mild to moderate
overall disease and cannot be on medications, such as haloperidol, to
reduce chorea.
In a study called PREDICT, IU is seeking individuals who have been genetically
tested and and found to carry the gene that causes Huntington disease.
A second nationwide study, also funded by the NIH and named PHAROS, seeks
people who are at risk for developing Huntington disease but don’t
know if they carry the gene. These participants would have a parent who
developed the disease.
Physicians will use various diagnostic tools, such as brain imaging and
neuropsychological testing, to determine early changes that may be indicators
of the onset of the disease. Both observational studies are multi-center
clinical trials.
For additional information or to enroll in one of the trials, call the IU Clinical Trials Program at 317-278-0868.
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Media Contact: Mary Hardin
317-274-7722
mhardin@iupui.edu
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
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