EyeBrain’s eye-tracker used in study of levodopa treatment for Parkinson's

18 December 2011

Ivry-sur-Seine, France. EyeBrain, a developer of devices for the early diagnosis of neurological diseases, has announced that its EyeBrain Tracker is being used in a clinical trial studying the dyskinesia induced by treating patients suffering from idiopathic Parkinson’s disease with levodopa.

The endpoint of the trial is to find biomarkers for the late-onset complications of a treatment regime using levodopa (BIODYS). This compound, which is naturally transformed into dopamine in the brain, is one of the only drugs available for slowing the effects of Parkinson’s disease. However, over time, it induces dyskinesia in these patients, which takes the form of abnormal movements primarily affecting the face (tongue, lips, jaw) and extending as far as the arms and legs.

Altogether, 30 people will be enrolled on the trial. Half of them will be Parkinson’s sufferers who have been treated with levodopa and have developed dyskinesia, while the other half will consist of healthy subjects who will be used as a control group.

The trial is being sponsored and financed by Bordeaux University Hospital and was set up by professor Jean-François Tison, a neurologist attached to the CNRS Physiopathology of Parkinsonian syndromes unit at the University of Bordeaux Two (the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases). The EyeBrain Tracker device is being funded under the joint 2007-2013 State-Region Plan (Aquitaine Regional Council and the FEDER fund).

“Patients suffering from idiopathic Parkinson’s disease will undergo an acute test as part of a pre-operational assessment for stimulating the deep recesses of the brain,” explained professor Tison. The motricity effects of the treatment will be evaluated by measuring the speed of eye movements with the help of the EyeBrain Tracker.

“We will see whether levodopa modifies the parameters of blinking in a way that is correlated with the improvement in motricity,” said professor Tison. “Using the EyeBrain Tracker enables us to measure the motricity effect through eye movements, since the blinking parameters are also linked to the patient’s general motricity. The patient’s response to this trial is also a predictor of their reaction to the neurosurgery that will follow.”

The EyeBrain Tracker, which is already used in the early diagnosis of Parkinsonian syndromes, such as progressive supra-nuclear paralysis (PSP), cortico-basal degeneration (CBD) and multiple systems atrophy (MSA), is thus continuing to broaden its fields of application. It is now playing an important role in clinical research into other neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, and is a valuable aid in the early diagnosis and follow-up of these diseases.

“We are delighted to know that the EyeBrain Tracker is playing a part in a clinical trial targeting idiopathic Parkinson’s,” said the chairman of EyeBrain, Serge Kinkingnéhun. “This forms part of our goal of making the benefits of eye motricity available to a larger number of people suffering from neurological pathologies.”

Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. In western countries it affects 0.3% of the general population. Its prevalence increases with age, reaching one per cent in the over-60s, and as much as 4% in the over-80s. There are 100,000 sufferers in France and 8,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.

Source: Eye Brain