Search results

Drug repurposing involves the identification of new applications for existing drugs. Owing to the enormous rise in the costs of pharmaceutical R&D, several pharmaceutical companies are leveraging repurposing strategies. Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder worldwide, affecting approximately 1–2 percent of the human population older than 65 years. This study proposes a literature-based drug repurposing strategy in Parkinson's disease.

The literature-based drug repurposing strategy proposed herein combined natural language processing, network science and machine learning methods for analyzing unstructured text data and producing actional knowledge for drug repurposing. The approach comprised multiple computational components, including the extraction of biomedical entities and their relationships, knowledge graph construction, knowledge representation learning and machine learning-based prediction.

The proposed strategy was used to mine information pertaining to the mechanisms of disease treatment from known treatment relationships and predict drugs for repurposing against Parkinson's disease. The F1 score of the best-performing method was 0.97, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The study also presents experimental results obtained by combining the different components of the strategy.

The drug repurposing strategy proposed herein for Parkinson's disease is distinct from those existing in the literature in that the drug repurposing pipeline includes components of natural language processing, knowledge representation and machine learning for analyzing the scientific literature. The results of the study provide important and valuable information to researchers studying different aspects of Parkinson's disease.

This preliminary paper reviews recent evidence that suggests that there is a strong link between increasing consumption of caffeine and reduced incidence of Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease currently affects 1 in 1,000 of the general population and has no cure. Whilst the biological changes resulting in Parkinson’s disease symptoms are well known, the initial cause of these is not. Should a relatively simple lifestyle factor such as caffeine be proven to protect against Parkinson’s disease, then this represents a major breakthrough in knowledge about the disease.

Whilst Parkinson's disease (PD) remains incurable recent evidence has suggested that diet may have a role in delaying the onset of symptoms and/or reducing the risk of developing the disease. This paper is the first in a series on diet and PD and outlines the effect that vitamin E may have on the prevalence of the disease. Results have indicated that a doubled intake of vitamin E has been associated with a reduction in disease incidence of up to 70 per cent, possibly due to reducing the effects of oxidative stress. Raised intake of peanuts and salad dressing has also associated with a reduced risk of PD. Although no guaranteed protection can be conferred by vitamin E intake it can be recommended that individuals at risk of PD could increase their intake as it may be of benefit and is unlikely to be harmful.

Parkinson's disease is an age‐related brain disease which is currently incurable. The long period during which damage occurs but symptoms are not evident is a focus of research with an aim to finding ways of reducing damage. This paper is the third in a series of diet and PD and covers the evidence for a role of fruit, vegetables and grains in the development of PD. Evidence is not conclusive but suggests that increasing the consumption of fruit, vegetables and grains may reduce the incidence of PD. A small number of studies have found a positive association between fruit and vegetables and PD but this may be due to chemical contamination. There is a need for further research to be carried out, preferably as part of a large ongoing study, rather than using retospective data, with its inherent bias.

The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive summary of current research on the health risks and benefits associated with coffee drinking.

This review includes up‐to‐date information from the original literature on coffee drinking and health and presents findings in a manner accessible to both experts and non‐experts.

Coffee contains caffeine, antioxidants, and other phytochemicals, all of which affect disease risks. There is evidence that coffee drinking may not be suitable for certain individuals. Overall, however, coffee drinking seems to be a non‐harmful habit for those who drink it regularly and in moderation, and recent studies indeed suggest that it may even be beneficial for most people. The most currently available evidence suggests that coffee drinking can help reduce the risk of several diseases, most notably type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease, although the underlying mechanisms for this effect are still being investigated.

Current studies suggest that coffee drinkers can help protect themselves from neurodegenerative and other diseases by drinking an average of two cups of regular, filtered coffee per day.

This article provides accessible and comprehensive information to researchers, nutritionists, and consumers who are interested in the potential health risks and benefits of regular and moderate coffee drinking.