Exploring the Intersection of Parkinson’s and GPL-1RA Drugs
A Stonehill neuroscience professor and three students conduct research exploring how these drugs increased dopamine production pathway in Neuro2A cells.
The Stonehill Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program brings together student scholars and faculty mentors to pursue in-depth faculty-led research across disciplines. The program provides students the unique opportunity to contribute meaningfully to active research and reflects the college’s commitment to experiential learning. This story explores a recent project.
More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease, and the prevalence of this debilitating neurodegenerative disorder has doubled in the past 25 years. Could a diabetes medication improve symptoms?
That’s what Stonehill students Gabriella Parisi ’26, Ava Young ’27 and Emma Gray ’27 spent their summer researching.
Under the supervision of Nicole Cyr, professor of biology and Neuroscience Program director, Parisi, Young and Gray studied how a class of drugs called GLP-1RAs — more commonly known by brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy — affect the brain. Use of these drugs has exploded in recent years, with as many as 12% of American adults reporting taking them at some point.
The drugs are generally prescribed to treat obesity and related diseases. However, Cyr and her students see potential for a completely different application — and a potentially groundbreaking one.
“My students were able to show that these drugs increased the dopamine production pathway in Neuro2A cells,” Cyr explained. The cause of Parkinson’s disease, Cyr notes, is a loss of cells that make dopamine.
“This is very new,” Cyr adds. “Our lab aims to contribute to understanding the benefits and risks of using GLP-1RAs in Parkinson’s disease prevention and treatment.”
An Opportunity to Expand Body of Evidence
Her lab is not the first to study this. She said that in one previous study, GLP-1RAs improved motor symptoms in participants with Parkinson’s disease, and another reported symptom improvement but significant side effects from the drug. Another recent study showed that GLP-1RAs did not improve Parkinson’s disease symptoms, but side effects were not significant, and the drug was considered well-tolerated.
“Clearly, we need a better understanding of how these medications work in individuals with Parkinson’s disease,” Cyr says. “We are currently conducting experiments to determine how GLP-1RAs combat inflammation and cell death in specific dopamine-producing neurons.”
Cyr said these studies will support understanding of how these drugs may help prevent or delay Parkinson’s disease symptoms. They will also test if these drugs are effective at lower doses to reduce the risk of negative side effects.
She also credits her students as trailblazers. “When students come work in my lab in the summer, I ask them, ‘What are you interested in about this research? And they lead me in different directions.”
Cyr was interested in researching GLP-1RAs. But she credits Parisi, Young and Gray with taking the lab in this direction. “They took the wheel,” Cyr says. “They really helped me get this line of research started.”
For the student researchers, the opportunity to conduct such groundbreaking research was too good to miss.
“These drugs are being used on so many people, and we don’t know much about them,” says Young, a biology major. “A lot of people think that’s scary, but I also think it’s exciting, because there might be so many possibilities for these drugs in the future. It’s really exciting that we get to be a part of that.”
Faculty Who Let Students Drive the Research
And not just a part of the research. “Professor Cyr has her general concept, but she is really great about letting us take a big role,” adds Gray, a neuroscience major. “At other schools, students aren’t really driving the research.”
Cyr’s three researchers have different career goals — endocrinology for Young, physical therapy for Gray and a Ph.D. for Parisi — but they’re unanimous about the transformative effect of working in the lab.
“Not only being part of this growing line of new research, but getting to work with Cyr and developing these close relationships. … I’ve learned so much and so many doors have opened for me,” Young says.
“Dr. Cyr helped me with my research — she’s helping me with my thesis — and this experience helped me narrow down what I want to do with my life,” says Parisi, a neuroscience major and an athlete on Stonehill’s NCAA Division I lacrosse team. “But also, this summer was just so fun — being in the lab, the four of us. I could not be happier with how it went.”
At the conclusion of their SURE experience this past summer, they had to create a poster about their findings and present it to the rest of the SURE community.
Around the lab, Cyr has hung the posters of all the research projects from summers past. The effect was inspiring, Young says. “I feel like we’re part of a team — not only us three, but all the people who came before us. One huge team of researchers trying to help people.”
Next year, the students will present their findings at the Northeast Undergraduate/Graduate Research Organization for Neuroscience conference.
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