A Coalition to Advance Treatments for Parkinson’s Disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, and Related Disorders

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) share underlying neuropathology. Despite overlapping biology, therapeutic development has been approached separately for these clinical syndromes and there remains no treatment to slow, stop or prevent progression of clinical symptoms and development disability for people living with PD or DLB. Recent advances in biomarker tools, however, have paved new paths for biologic definition and staging of PD and DLB under a shared research framework. Patient-centered research funding organizations see the opportunity for a novel biological staging system for PD and DLB to accelerate and increase success of therapeutic development for the patient communities they serve. Amid growing momentum in the field to develop biological definitions for these neurodegenerative diseases, 7 international nonprofit organizations focused on PD and DLB came together to drive multistakeholder discussion and input on a biological staging system for research. The impact of these convenings to date can be seen in changes incorporated into a proposed biological staging system and growing alignment within the field to rapidly apply new scientific knowledge and biomarker tools to inform clinical trial design. In working together, likeminded nonprofit partners who were initially catalyzed by the significant potential for a biological staging system also realized the power of a shared voice in calling the field to action and have since worked together to establish a coalition to advance precompetitive progress and reduce hurdles to developing better treatments for PD, DLB and biologically related disorders.