Study Goal:

Prodromal Parkinson’s: Before the typical motor symptoms of Parkinson’s begin, people experience a period called prodromal Parkinson’s. In this phase, some people experience other symptoms not related to movement but still caused by the progressing Parkinson’s. An example of this is isolated Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behaviour Disorder (iRBD), where older people who are otherwise well act out their dreams in their sleep. Recent research has identified that the vast majority of these iRBD cases go on to develop Parkinson’s, which offers a real opportunity to start disease modifying treatment at the earliest point in time.

Neuroinflammation: Whilst the cause of Parkinson's is unknown, it has been suggested that inflammation might be playing a role. Significantly, previous research has shown that patients with iRBD have increased levels of Inflammation in their brain (neuroinflammation) suggesting that this may be a target for a disease modifying strategy.

This trial will be evaluating the ability of a new drug to reduce these levels of neuroinflammation as a possible way of slowing the death of brain cells in prodromal Parkinson’s in an effort to slow or stop the progression of disease.

What's Involved:

Around twenty people diagnosed with iRBD will be recruited into this study via the Discovery study cohort and the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre webpage. Participants will be randomly put into two groups, with three quarters receiving the study drug and one quarter taking a placebo (‘dummy pill’) for 12 weeks in a blinded design where no-one will know the treatment allocation. To gauge success, the study will look at markers of neuroinflammation from brain scanning, blood tests and cerebrospinal fluid obtained via a lumbar puncture.