N-Acetylcysteine for Neuroprotection in Parkinson's Disease
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2016-08-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The overall objective of this developmental/exploratory study is to use noninvasive proton
magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) to assess (a) whether brain levels of the
antioxidant glutathione (GSH) are decreased in vivo, as has been found in postmortem brain,
in 30 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) compared to matched controls; (b) whether GSH
levels in PD brain increase significantly following 30 days of daily supplementation with
1800mg or 3600mg of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) compared to placebo and to baseline, and (c)
whether any such increases in brain GSH would be dose-dependent and be associated with a
change in the participants' oxidative stress profiles. In addition, a clinical assessment
battery, including quantitative tests of motor function, will be performed to investigate
potential associations between the NAC intervention, brain GSH levels, oxidative stress
markers, and clinical presentation. If successful, this study will represent the first
objective documentation of whether there is a GSH deficit in living PD brain that dietary NAC
supplementation can mitigate, thereby providing a compelling justification for investigating
such neuroprotective strategies in larger controlled clinical trials.