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news.A Harvard University research has found that people who take ibuprofen, a nonprescription painkiller which was formerly marketed as Brufen, is less likely to get Parkinson's disease.
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The study, followed more than 130,000 people for six years, revealed that people who used three or more tablets of ibuprofen each week were about 38% less likely to develop Parkinson’s than patients who did not take the drug, Bloomberg.com reported.
The researchers then combined these results with those of six previously published studies to see if the association between ibuprofen use and Parkinson’s disease would remain.
They found nearly the same reduction in risk with ibuprofen (about 30%) but not with other anti-inflammatory medications, suggesting that the effect may be specific to ibuprofen.
In fact, the more ibuprofen a person reportedly took, the lower their risk to get Parkinson’s appeared to be– a phenomenon that is known as dose-response effect.
Lead author of the study Xiang Gao believes ibuprofen may work against Parkinson’s by activating a signaling pathway called the peroxisome, proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) pathway which inhibits apoptosis, plays a role in oxidative stress, and is important for anti-inflammatory actions.
Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic associate professor of neurology James Bower opined that though the study findings show a convincing association, and ibuprofen could possibly be protective, there could be other explanations as well.
He said that a clinical trial for ibuprofen in Parkinson’s patients may be needed to follow up on the epidemiological findings.