According to the National Parkinson Foundation, the National Institute for Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS) has stopped the clinical trial of Coenzyme Q10, referred to as the QE3 study.

The study was designed to test whether fairly high doses of Coenzyme Q10 were effective in slowing the progression of Parkinson's disease, or neuroprotective. The investigators of the trial determined that there was neither a neuroprotective nor a symptomatic benefit of Coenzyme Q10 for people with early Parkinson's disease.

The Foundation said all trial participants have already been alerted, and that the open and forthright communications to both investigators and patients should serve as a model for future clinical trial communications.

According to the Foundation, there are currently several promising new therapeutic approaches that seek to better target symptoms and potentially slow the disease in clinical and pre-clinical development pipelines, including gene therapy, advances in DBS and infusion technology, drugs that target better control of motor symptoms, dyskinesias and cognitive symptoms, and novel pathways to slow the disease.