Does Hep anti-viral drug treatment has any effect on Parkinson Disease Symptoms?

[felixned]

I would appreciate any information from those folks who had anti-viral treatment for Hep C or B and who suffer from Parkinson Disease.  I would like to know if after the treatment there was any change in Parkinson symptoms and if the PD progression changed.  This is very important so if you know of someone with PD and Hep please let me know. 

[Lynn K]

Found an old thread. Maybe you could message the original poster.

https://forums.hepmag.com/index.php?topic=2516.0

I’m not seeing anything about treating Parkinson’s disease with the new hep  C DAA drugs but I guess you are aware there is an an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s in those with hep b or hep c

Best of luck

[felixned]

Thanks Lynn.  I saw this post and sent the message to the author but I doubt that he'll reply since I don't think he maintained communication after that post.

I certainly know that people with hep supposed to be more prone to developing Parkinson.  I even wrote to the doctor who was the author of that study and asked him the same question I am asking here.  I never got any answer, no big surprise there.   
If the study is correct there should be data on PD after HEP treatment readily available but I have hard time finding any. 
My interest in this subject was originally spiked by this publication: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5968367/ that suggested that PD is caused by enterovirus which is similar to HEP viruses.  So I thought it would be interesting to learn how anti-viral HEP treatment affects PD symptoms. 

Thanks agan,

Felix

[Mugwump]

Interesting study you have quoted here. My read is that the participants in the study found evidence that forms of enterovirus and enterovirus antigens in the brain stem could be causing the neuron damage associated with Parkinson's. And that the previous studies done to ascertain the presence of herpes virus transiting via the vegas nerve to the brain thus causing Parkinson's symptoms were all negative.
If this is the case then the primary cause of Parkinson's may very well be the presence of strains of enterovirus and their precursors in the brain stem.

I have read many studies over the years when I had HCV and never read any studies done on post mortem victims of HCV to ascertain whether or not a similar problem occurs. So as to whether or not curing HCV can reduce, worsen or leave in place Parkinson's symptoms, we don't really know.

The studies you quoted were done on those who have died from advanced Parkinson's so most of the brain matter studied was from the elderly, some of whom may have been exposed to polio virus early in life. The enterovirus virus strain of polio is today considered eradicated but other strains of enterovirus which can cause serious diseases are still showing up today. It is speculated that an enterovirus may be at the cause of the recent spike in a polio like disease, AFM (acute flaccid myelitis) in children. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-10-acute-flaccid-myelitis-afm-rare.html

Either way it is important for these studies to continue and the public at large to be more aware of how important they really are for our children's future.
 

[felixned]

Thanks for the reply, Mugwump.  So there are two studies on the subject of HEP/PD relationship that I can point to:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25608223 (full text available in Medscape)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29049127

The second one is a meta-study and the databases used probably have the information I am looking for.  I contacted Dr. Wijarnpreecha who is the author of the second study but as I said there was no reply.  The first one is "more technical" and it has information on HCV post-mortem brain studies.
I think another very interesting question to ask is whether HEP treatment changes the odds for someone with HEP developing PD.  I'll keep on searching....