• Tremor or trembling in hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face.
• Rigidity or stiffness of the limbs and trunk.
• Bradykinesia, or slowness of movement.
• Postural instability or impaired balance and coordination

Patients may also have difficulty walking, talking, or completing other simple tasks. Early symptoms are subtle and occur gradually, and the disease is both chronic and progressive. Symptoms first appear, on average, when a patient is older than 50, and men and women are affected equally. A subset of PD called young-onset Parkinson’s affects those under age 40. PD is not usually inherited.

What is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor?
Human cells contain two forms of monoamine oxidase, MAO-A and MAO-B. Both are found in the brain, but MAO-B is far more prevalent and is responsible for the breakdown of dopamine after its release into the synapse. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by the death of cells that use dopamine to transmit their signals. By inhibiting the breakdown of dopamine in the synapse, rasagiline permits the signaling neurons to reabsorb more of it for reuse later, somewhat compensating for the diminished quantities manufactured.

From selegiline to rasagiline?
In 1978, Prof. Moussa Youdim began working at Technion on the MAO-B inhibitor selegiline (l-deprenyl) - the anti-Parkinson activity of which Youdim and colleagues discovered in 1975 - and on a series of AGN drugs, one of which became rasagiline. Selegiline was the first selective MAO-B inhibitor approved for use in PD in the United States. Unlike selegiline, rasagiline is not broken down to the toxic amphetamine metabolites.

Parkinson's Solution
For generations mankind has awaited a drug that can counter the harsh affliction of Parkinson’s disease (PD). It took well over two decades of intense research, thought, and collaboration by Technion professors Moussa Youdim and John Finberg, and Teva Pharmaceuticals to develop a sophisticated drug that offers real hope for PD patients. Azilect® (rasagiline), the breakthrough drug for Parkinson’s disease, is now being marketed worldwide. Azilect® provides relief to the millions of patients suffering from the debilitating and incurable neurodegenerative disease and hope for the thousands of new patients diagnosed each year.

For reasons unknown, PD occurs when dopamine-producing nerve cells in the brain die. Dopamine is a chemical required to ensure that the body’s muscles are coordinated and move smoothly. These lost nerve cells cannot be regenerated. The compound that eventually became Azilect® is a powerful, selective monoamine oxidase (MAO) type-B inhibitor drug. The MAO type-B enzyme breaks down the dopamine and Azilect® works to block this enzyme, increasing the amount of dopamine available and slowing down the course of the disease.

Azilect® is extremely effective as the initial single-drug therapy in early PD and as an additional therapy to the standard levodopa treatment in more advanced patients. The typical dosage is a convenient once-a-day pill and Azilect® does not share the adverse side-effects of other anti-Parkinson drugs.

“We can look to the future with additional hope,” says Youdim, “as it is being discovered that constant use of Azilect® also increases the activity of antioxidative enzymes in the brain and may have a disease-modifying activity in Parkinsonian subjects. This is presently being studied by Teva in a large population of PD patients.”

Brainstormers - The story of Azilect ®