1. Amantadine hydrochloride treatment in olivopontocerebellar atrophy: A
long-term follow-up study
MI Botez, T Botez-Marquard, R Elie, N Le Marec, OL Pedraza
Eur Neurol 1999;41:212-215
Amantadine is a beneficial long-term therapy for olivopontocerebellar
atrophy, according to this open-label extension study of a previous
double-blind trial.
Thirty-three patients with a variety of etiologies received 200 mg/day
over a mean of 40+ months. Reaction time and movement time either
improved
or remained the same over the course of treatment, while untreated
controls experienced declines on all measurements.
This study was funded in part by Du Pont Merck.
2. The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor channel blocker amantadine does not
cause histopathological alterations in human brain tissue
J Kornhuber, K Jellinger, J Wiltfang, F Leblhuber, P Riederer
Acta Neuropathol 1999;98:85-90
Amantadine treatment does not cause necrosis or other morphological
alterations in human brain, according to this report. Brain tissue from
8
patients (either Parkinson's disease or dementia or both) who had
received
amantadine was compared to tissue from 11 patients (dementia,
depression,
or schizophrenia) who had not. Amantadine treatment ranged from 6-411
days
(mean 33.5 days). In all but one case, changes found were "either
nonspecific age-related or cerebrovascular changes or other
neurodegenerative disorders including AD, PD, or DLB [diffuse Lewy body
disease]," and changes in the exceptional case (treatment duration=6
days)
were not considered related to amantadine treatment.
3. Effects of amantadine on in vitro production of interleukin-2 in
de-novo patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease
KP Wandinger, JM Hagenah, H Kluter, M Rothermundt, M Peters, P Vieregge
J Neuroimmunol 1999;98:214-220
Plasma levels of two cytokines are lowered in Parkinson's disease
patients, and in some cases may be normalized in association with
amantadine treatment, according to this study. Levels of interleukin-2
(IL-2), interferon-gamma (IFN-g), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were
studied
in ten de novo PD patients, and in patients with depression and in
healthy
controls. Before amantadine treatment, mean levels of IL-2 and IFN-g in
PD
patients were approximately one third those in healthy controls. IFN-g
in
PD patients was approximately one fourth that in depressed patients,
while
IL-2 was insignificantly lower.
After amantadine monotherapy (duration 14-446 days), five PD patients
had
normalized cytokine levels, while five showed no effect, uncorrelated
with
clinical improvement.
Copyright 1998 WE MOVE
Editor: Richard Robinson ([log in to unmask])
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