Dyskinesia refers to the excessive and uncontrollable movements that are a side effect of long-term dopamine replacement therapy in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). It is a harrowing problem for people with PD, who report that it is one of the most difficult aspects of Parkinson's to manage.
Because they fear developing dyskinesia, many patients wait as long as possible to begin using the drug levodopa, the gold-standard treatment for relieving the stiffness, tremors, and rigidity that are the cardinal features of PD. Even after starting the medicine, many limit the dosage to reduce the dyskinesias, and therefore settle for a sub-optimal benefit from the best medical therapy available for their disease. There is currently no therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat this side effect.
In this podcast, Dave Iverson speaks with Michael J. Fox Foundation CEO Dr. Todd Sherer about the Foundation’s commitment to identify and drive forward promising drug targets to reduce levodopa-induced dyskinesias (LID) in people with PD. In particular, Dr. Sherer discusses novel approaches to developing symptomatic treatments for PD that move away from the traditional dopamine centric view of the disease.