有一种常见药，或可抑制甚至逆转帕金森病情

A drug first discovered over 50 years ago and long used as a medicine for coughs and respiratory illnesses appears to show promise in treating a very different kind of sickness: Parkinson's disease.

有一种药50年前被发现，一直用于治疗咳嗽和呼吸道疾病，现在被发现能治疗一种完全不同的疾病：帕金森病。

Ambroxol, an active ingredient in cough mixtures since the 1970s, has been investigated in recent years for its apparent potential to halt the progression of Parkinson's, and already this year, the drug has passed two important milestones that may bring us closer to a much-hoped-for treatment.

20世纪70年代以来氨溴索一直是止咳药的有效成分，近些年调查了它在抑制帕金森病发展中的潜在作用，今年已经通过了两个重要测试阶段，可能使我们朝着期待已久的治疗目标更近了一步。

Last month, a multi-institutional team of researchers led by University College London (UCL) reported the results of a small Phase II clinical trial suggesting that ambroxol was safe and well-tolerated in human patients with Parkinson's disease, while hinting at possible neuroprotective effects that need to be examined further in subsequent trials.

上个月伦敦大学学院带领的多机构研究团队报告了小型Ⅱ期临床试验结果，结果显示对于帕金森患者来说氨溴索很安全，而且耐受性良好。同时报告中暗示了它可能有神经保护作用，还需要在以后的试验中做进一步检验。

Based on these outcomes, last week funding was announced to continue the next steps in evaluating ambroxol in a much larger cohort of people with Parkinson's, while also seeking to learn more about how individual patient genotypes may contribute to the disease.

鉴于已经取得的成果，上周宣布拨款继续下一步工作，在更大范围的帕金森患者中对氨溴索进行评估，同时争取更多地了解个体患者基因型对这种疾病的影响。

"The ambroxol study is important because there are no treatments available for Parkinson's that slow, stop, or reverse [it]" says Simon Stott, deputy director of research at The Cure Parkinson's Trust, one of the bodies funding the research program.

The Cure Parkinson的信托基金是资助这一研究项目的机构之一，研究副主任Simon Stott说：“氨溴索的研究非常重要，因为没有其他治疗方法能像它这样延缓、抑制或逆转帕金森病。”

"All of the current medications only deal with the symptoms of the condition – they do nothing to delay the progression of Parkinson's."

“目前所有药物只是对症，但不能控制病情发展。”