Trial reportJournal of Parkinson's disease2017
Phase IIb Study of Intranasal Glutathione in Parkinson's Disease.
Trial report in Journal of Parkinson's disease, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Systematic Review on Disease-Modifying Therapies in Parkinsonian Disorders.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Pooled it
- The role of N-acetylcysteine and glutathione in the management of Parkinson's disease: a systematic review of oxidative biomarkers and clinical outcomes.Amino acids · 2026Pooled it
- Altered central and blood glutathione in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment: a meta-analysis.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2022Pooled it
- Intranasal drug delivery to the brain for neurodegenerative diseases: Current efforts and challenges in delivery platforms and modeling.Advanced drug delivery reviews · 2026Review
- The irony of Parkinson's disease: Converging mechanisms of redox imbalance and ferroptosis.Redox biology · 2026Review
- Nose-to-Brain Therapeutics in Parkinson's Disease: Clinical Trials, Mechanisms, and Therapeutic Potential.Pharmaceutics · 2026Review
- Ferroptosis-related stress during aging and its relevance to disease.GeroScience · 2026Review
- Ferroptosis and aging: Inducing and catalyzing neurodegenerative diseases.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- A role for glutathione in Parkinson's disease modification.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Clinical Studies Using Intranasal Therapies for Parkinson's Disease: A Review.Advanced pharmaceutical bulletin · 2026Review
- Intranasal vs. Device-Assisted Drug Delivery: Advantages and Limitations for the Delivery of Biopharmaceuticals to the CNS.Pharmaceutics · 2026Review
- Article
- The Search for Disease Modification in Parkinson's Disease-A Review of the Literature.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Intranasal Delivery of Metabolically Resilient Glutathione:Molecular pharmaceutics · 2025Article
- Nose-to-brain drug delivery: from bench to bedside.Translational neurodegeneration · 2025Review
- The role of dopaminergic medication and specific pathway alterations in idiopathic andScience advances · 2025Article
- Homeostasis and metabolism of iron and other metal ions in neurodegenerative diseases.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Review
- Ferroptosis: a novel pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies for Parkinson disease: A review.Medicine · 2025Review
- From pathogenesis to treatment: the emerging role of ferroptosis in Parkinson's disease.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- System Xc-pathway as a potential regulatory target in neurological disorders.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundReduced glutathione (GSH) is an endogenously synthesized tripeptide depleted early in the course of Parkinson's disease (PD) and GSH augmentation has been proposed as a therapeutic strategy in PD.
objectiveThis Phase IIb study was designed to evaluate whether a Phase III study of intranasal GSH, (in)GSH, for symptomatic relief is warranted and to determine the most appropriate trial design for a disease-modification study.
methodsThis was a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 45 individuals with Hoehn & Yahr Stage 1-3 PD. Participants were randomized to receive intranasal placebo (saline), 100 mg GSH, or 200 mg GSH thrice daily for three months, and were observed over a one-month washout period.
resultsAll cohorts improved over the intervention period, including placebo. The high-dose group demonstrated improvement in total Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS) (-4.6 (4.7), P = 0.0025) and UPDRS motor subscore (-2.2 (3.8), P = 0.0485) over baseline, although neither treatment group was superior to placebo. One participant in the high-dose GSH cohort developed cardiomyopathy.
conclusionsAlthough predicted improvements in PD total and motor scores were observed, these data do not suggest (in)GSH is superior to placebo after a three month intervention. The symptomatic effects are sufficient to warrant a delayed-start or wash-out design study for disease-modification trials. Whether long-term use of (in)GSH leads to clinical improvements that are sustained and significantly different than placebo will require appropriately-powered longer-duration studies in larger cohorts. The improvement in the placebo arm was more robust than has been observed in previous PD studies and warrants further investigation.
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