Exploring the Cerebral Palsy Treatment Landscape

Cerebral palsy is an incurable neurological condition with profound motor function impact. Currently treatments focus on alleviating symptoms and improving quality of life, but do not address the underlying cause, making the pursuit for innovative therapeutics critical. This blog explores the treatment challenges of cerebral palsy, focusing on central nervous system and musculoskeletal drugs, two mainstay medications to manage neurological symptoms, muscle plasticity and the related neuromuscular challenges.

Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder caused by loss or impaired motor function in the brain. Impacting 2-3 per 1,000 live births, this condition is characterized by abnormal movement and posture.¹ To date, there is no cure for cerebral palsy, with current treatments focusing on symptomatic relief. Here, we used Causaly to explore the treatment landscape in cerebral palsy.

Using Causaly, potential treatments for a disease can be refined by ATC drug classification. Here, we prioritized treatments targeting the central nervous systems (CNS) and musculoskeletal. These two drug categories are the mainstay medications to manage neurological symptoms, muscle plasticity and the related neuromuscular challenges.

Almost 40 CNS drugs have been associated with cerebral palsy symptomatic treatment, almost half of which have been studied in trials extracted from the ClinicalTrials.gov website (Figure 1).

13 drugs targeting the musculoskeletal system in cerebral palsy were identified by Causaly. More than half of these have also been examined in trials from the ClinicalTrials.gov website.

Cerebral palsy remains an incurable neurological disorder which demands innovative treatments. Within the scope of drug development, researchers must stay up to date with ongoing preclinical and clinical studies to ensure treatment advancement, foster scientific collaborations and prioritize patient outcomes.