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Safinamide: a new hope for Parkinson's disease?

Author
Abstract
:

The loss of dopaminergic neurons (DAn) and reduced dopamine (DA) production underlies the reasoning behind the gold standard treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD) using levodopa (L-DOPA). Recently licensed by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), safinamide [a monoamine oxidase B (MOA-B) inhibitor] is an alternative to L-DOPA; as we discuss here, it enhances dopaminergic transmission with decreased secondary effects compared with L-DOPA. In addition, nondopaminergic actions (neuroprotective effects) have been reported, with safinamide inhibiting glutamate release and sodium/calcium channels, reducing the excitotoxic input to dopaminergic neuronal death. Effects of safinamide have been correlated with the amelioration of non-motor symptoms (NMS), although these remain under discussion. Overall, safinamide can be considered to have potential antidyskinetic and neuroprotective effects and future trials and/or studies should be performed to provide further evidence for its potential as an anti-PD drug.

Year of Publication
:
2018
Journal
:
Drug discovery today
Date Published
:
2018
ISSN Number
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1359-6446
URL
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http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1359-6446(17)30426-9
DOI
:
10.1016/j.drudis.2018.01.033
Short Title
:
Drug Discov Today
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