A six-month study on an amino-acid supplement shake developed by UConn School of Medicine researchers for Parkinson’s patients at UConn Health is underway and seeking more participation.
The study is testing the potential impact benefits of the shake, which is designed to correct amino-acid deficiencies, improve long term health, reduce inflammation and encourage a healthy metabolism.
UConn is looking for Parkinson’s patients between 60 and 80 years old to take a shake daily for six months. Participants would also be asked to share periodic blood samples as well as completing physical function assessments and questionnaires.
UConn applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a new investigational drug application and are now principal investigators for the FDA. The clinical study compares the UConn-made shake to others available over-the-counter. UConn researchers found which amino-acids are low in Parkinson’s patients and created the shake.
New Britain resident and UConn Health patient Jose Figueroa was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012. His condition had been deteriorating in recent years, but due to exercising at least two hours a day, five days a week, he’s able to walk without a cane and get on the ground to play with his grandchildren, he said.
Jose Figueroa has been a longtime patient at UConn Health following his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2012. Figueroa has taken part in three clinical studies for Parkinson’s patients including one for a targeted-amino acid protein shake that has been developed at UConn. (Courtesy)
These are activities he would have struggled with prior to his regular exercise. He also pointed to the targeted, amino-acid protein shake developed by UConn Health and targeted to those with Parkinson’s, giving him the energy needed to be so active. Last year, he took part in a three-week nutritional supplement study of the amino-acid protein shake developed by UConn researchers Dr. Jacob Earp and Dr. Cristina Colón-Semenza. The shake’s intent is to reduce inflammation and provide nutrients.
Figueroa said the shake gave him energy and he would take it again if it were available.
Putting on muscle
Figueroa, 66, said he has benefited from the research by the Brain and Spine Institute’s faculty and Dr. Bernardo Rodrigues at the UConn School of Medicine as well as researchers at the UConn Department of Kinesiology and the dedicated Movement for Life Lab.
In addition to being a researcher, Earp is also a professor of Kinesiology at UConn.
“My research mainly focuses around improving muscle in older adults. We look at what we call muscle quantity and quality, making sure that people retain enough muscle mass so that they can retain physical function,” Earp said. “For some people, we focus on the muscle quality more, and some people, we focus on the muscle quantity more, based on what that population needs.”
Earp has been at UConn for five years and his background comes from strength conditioning and sports science. He previously was a muscle researcher and a strength coach at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
He worked with several Olympic programs to help athletes “put on the muscle they wanted to improve.” At UConn his focus on helping those with Parkinson’s disease.
He said that protein was something that was focused on a lot and enhancing the recovery from exercise. Earp also researched with the U.S. Dairy Council to compare whey and soy protein, and which works better for putting on muscle growth.
“We found that the higher Leucine content and whey protein was actually helping our people to improve muscle mass more than soy protein or a placebo beverage. We know that the amino acid composition was important,” Earp said. “That goes into our current study about Parkinson’s disease. There’s been a lot of research saying that older individuals with Parkinson’s really need to be active and they should be exercising more and there’s all these additional health benefits of exercising.”
Earp said older adults, including those with Parkinson’s disease, tend to struggle to meet protein demands but that many of the average population in the U.S. are typically over-consuming protein. He said that older adults also have increased demand for protein because of “less absorption” and “decreased transit speed” and a number of other factors.
Parkinson’s patients are asked to exercise more, and Earp said that they already have increased protein demands and the exercise increases those demands.
The UConn-made targeted-amino acid protein shake that is seeking UConn health patients to take part in a study to check the supplements safety.
“We want to make sure we are adequately fueling the patients. For some individuals with Parkinson’s disease, eating protein actually has its own inherent risk,” Earp said. “Not a risk as in, they shouldn’t be doing it, but a risk as the primary medication for Parkinson’s disease is Levadopa. It is an amino acid, and it is absorbed in the same way as many of our other essential amino acids.”
“The primary medication that is only controlling symptoms is not actually treating the disease, is amino acid based, so it does compete for absorption with the foods that you’re eating that have proteins. You need those proteins to live. But if you eat proteins, then it can actually spike your symptoms because it can interfere with that medication. For that reason, you might find physicians are prescribing either protein restricted diets or protein redistribution diets for people with Parkinson’s,” he said.
Earp said some Parkinson’s patients are using a protein redistribution diet. He describes it as Parkinson’s patients eating all of their protein before bed because symptoms will spike while they are sleeping and will be more manageable.
“From my exercise sports science background, that was very much the opposite of what we were telling our athletes. We know that you can’t adequately absorb large boluses of protein. Certain amino acids that transmit a little bit faster. With the Parkinson’s patient population, we wanted to essentially create a more efficient way of fueling people with Parkinson’s or helping them meet their protein needs – especially if they have those challenges around consumption,” Earp said.
Active lifestyle
Earp said Figueroa’s success has more to do with him living a physically active and engaged life.
“What we’re hoping to do is just make sure that he has the adequate nutrition so that he can maintain that activity and he can keep being involved in the exercise program. What we’re trying to do is not treat or cure anything. What we’re trying to do is make sure that someone has the nutrition that they need to be able to do those things that will help them keep healthy,” Earp said.
“I’m the scientist. We don’t know if anything actually works. Socrates says the only thing I know is I know nothing. I’m very hopeful in what we’re doing. I think for him with the active lifestyle being involved in the community and his passion for cooking – all those things I think contribute more than what we do,” he said.
Earp said the data they have so far is still preliminary and he is not ready to draw any conclusions.
UConn has been recruiting since January for this study, and the hope is to have it completed by next March. The target is to get 24 people with 12 taking the placebo and the other 12 on the supplement.
“If you are someone who struggles with eating protein or considering a protein redistribution diet, I think supplements will definitely be one of the solutions. I think our supplement compared to other protein supplements [that] are already on the market,” Earp said. “I think that it’s going to help with balancing the medication. We don’t want this to be viewed as a drug. We want this to be viewed as a nutritional supplement, and healthy nutrition can do a lot of these things already.”
Figueroa said in the last 18 months he’s been working out in the gym and has trimmed down from 205 pounds to 140 pounds.
UConn Health patient Jose Figueroa, who has Parkinson’s disease, with his wife Emily. The couple lives in New Britain. (Courtesy)
“My shaking went down a lot. My arm doesn’t jump out anymore. I still get a little shake but not as bad,” Figueroa said. “I took the protein shakes for three months with the study. When I wasn’t taking that protein, I didn’t have energy like I do right now. I’m up to 12 miles a day on the treadmill…There was a time I couldn’t even walk and I was falling. I used to cane and they were about to put me on a walker…I still lose my balance but not as bad. I’m strong enough to hold myself up.”
“I feel these shakes can be helpful. I felt a difference in energy,” he added.
His wife, Emily, said she has seen the improvement firsthand.
“I could see a big difference, compared to when he was diagnosed because I remember in the bed with him sleeping and I can actually, it felt like an earthquake on my bed. That’s how bad he was shaking, even in his sleep. He could barely move. He would get tired fast. He would lose his balance. It’s just a different person now,” Emily Figueroa said.
Highest quality of life
Jose Figueroa said he’s proud of his accomplishments because of his exercise dedication. With his health improvements he was able to take a trip to Europe last year. He said his asthma also has improved greatly with his weight loss.
He was a chef for 32 years but said he had to retire due to his Parkinson’s. He used to cook for 350 patients at an East Hartford nursing home. He cooked last week for 100 people at a Jack & Jill party; his first time cooking for a big crowd since his retirement.
“I enjoyed it and was so happy I was able to do it,” Jose Figueroa said. “I was able to concentrate on what I was doing.
“People have got to accept help,” he added. “At first, I was laying on the sofa. But I accepted the help and things worked out. If you just stay on the sofa – nothing is going to happen, and it just gets worse.”
The New Britain couple has two children and seven grandchildren.
“I have more energy,” Jose Figueroa said. “I have a 7-year-old granddaughter that takes me all over the place. I couldn’t get on the floor to play with her and now she puts me on the floor, and I get up no problem.”
Colón-Semenza is a doctor in UConn’s physical therapy program housed within the Department of Kinesiology and College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources at UConn-Storrs. She’s been in this position since 2020 and has worked with Figueroa.
Among her responsibilities include, “teaching all of the neurological rehabilitation content to our doctor/physical therapy students, as well as conducting research.” She is also the principal investigator for the Movement for Life Lab at UConn.
The focus is the use of exercise and physical activity and the management of neurodegenerative diseases, especially in Parkinson’s disease.
“The combination of Dr. Earp’s areas of expertise and my use of exercise and physical activity in the management of Parkinson’s disease,” Colón-Semenza said. “Dr. Earp’s expertise in terms of muscle quality and supplementation in terms of health and wellness for athletes, while his expertise was more in the athletic population. We combined our areas of expertise to help address this gap to help people with Parkinson’s disease live at the highest quality of life.”
Colón-Semenza also said the combination of the intense exercise and medication that manages the symptoms of the disease compete against each other for Parkinson’s patients.
“The evidence tells us that people with Parkinson’s disease should be exercising, and they should be exercising intensely,” she said. “There’s this challenge where they often are not getting the nutrition that they need to exercise at that high intensity. There’s a problem where the dietary protein that your intake competes with the primary and most effective medication for people with Parkinson’s disease.”
“This often leaves people undernourished for the demand they need to exercise in their lives,” Colón-Semenza said. “We are trying to fill that gap. We have come up with a tailored supplement to meet the needs. We’re looking at the effects of this amino acid supplement over a six-month period.”
“The scientific process is slow and thorough, but that’s really in everybody’s best interest. I know it can be frustrating to individuals who are living with the disease, and who want effective interventions now, but obviously, we have to ensure that these are effective and if they are safe and that it will actually improve individuals’ quality of life and outcome…We are in the very early stages of the scientific process to help us determine if this is an effective intervention.”
Colón-Semenza said Parkinson’s is the second most common neurodegenerative disease to Alzheimer’s disease.
The UConn-made targeted-amino acid protein shake that is seeking UConn health patients to take part in a study to check the supplements safety.
“Those numbers are really, kind of frightening in terms of what, what the future holds, if we don’t do something to better manage the disease and reduce the risk of the disease,” Colón-Semenza said. “It’s a terrible disease that has effects across practically every system in the human body with both motor and non-motor symptoms.”
Colón-Semenza said Jose Figueroa is a poster child for what she wants to do with her research, social support, community connection and physical activity regarding disease management.
Colón-Semenza said recruiting for this study is ongoing and they seek to have more participants at UConn Health in Farmington or on the UConn campus in Storrs.
“The scientific process is always hopeful. We’re always asking new questions and hopefully addressing the needs and gaps in service and interventions. When we’ve spoken to (Parkinson’s) support group participants about it. People are very excited. Because they’re saying, ‘yeah, that’s me, I don’t eat my steak’ or ‘I don’t eat as much protein because I worry that then my symptoms get worse because it interferes with my medication.’ The need is there. It has a clear and important impact, and I think we need to remain hopeful.”
For more information about the study, contact Carlos Rehbein by phone at (860) 634-8203 or by email movementforlifelab@gmail.com.