TY - JOUR
T1 - Could Mucuna pruriens be the answer to Parkinson's disease management in sub-Saharan Africa and other low-income countries worldwide?
AU - Fothergill-Misbah, Natasha
AU - Maroo, Harshvadan
AU - Cham, Momodou
AU - Pezzoli, Gianni
AU - Walker, Richard
AU - Cilia, Roberto
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/4
Y1 - 2020/4
N2 - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive, disabling, neurodegenerative disease that requires long term care and pharmaceutical treatment. Levodopa remains the gold standard treatment for PD globally, although it is largely unavailable and unaffordable for the majority of patients in many sub-Saharan African and other low-income countries (LICs). We suggest the potential for Mucuna pruriens (MP), a leguminous plant, to replace or supplement levodopa-based medicines in countries where levodopa is unaffordable and inaccessible due to its low costs of preparation and high natural availability. MP has been shown to induce a great improvement of motor symptoms with few adverse events in recent studies. However, caution is important until more robust data on the long-term safety of MP are available. We believe that MP could potentially be part of the answer to affordable, symptomatic treatment of PD in LICs worldwide.
AB - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive, disabling, neurodegenerative disease that requires long term care and pharmaceutical treatment. Levodopa remains the gold standard treatment for PD globally, although it is largely unavailable and unaffordable for the majority of patients in many sub-Saharan African and other low-income countries (LICs). We suggest the potential for Mucuna pruriens (MP), a leguminous plant, to replace or supplement levodopa-based medicines in countries where levodopa is unaffordable and inaccessible due to its low costs of preparation and high natural availability. MP has been shown to induce a great improvement of motor symptoms with few adverse events in recent studies. However, caution is important until more robust data on the long-term safety of MP are available. We believe that MP could potentially be part of the answer to affordable, symptomatic treatment of PD in LICs worldwide.
KW - Levodopa
KW - Low-income countries
KW - Mucuna pruriens
KW - Parkinson's disease
KW - Sub-Saharan Africa
KW - Treatment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081207744&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85081207744&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2020.03.002
DO - 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2020.03.002
M3 - Short survey
C2 - 32179240
AN - SCOPUS:85081207744
VL - 73
SP - 3
EP - 7
JO - Parkinsonism and Related Disorders
JF - Parkinsonism and Related Disorders
SN - 1353-8020
ER -