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Dignan – In the opening post of this "Summary of the pipeline" thread, in the pre-clinical grouping you have listed:

70. 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-4-ribofuranoside (AICAR) (Medical University of South Carolina)

I am recently interested in AICAR; can you post more information about this University of South Carolina work? I understand some researchers with HHMI have been doing work on AICAR/exercise/diabetes. Do you know if this drug is available OTC or only by prescription or perhaps only to researchers?

Hi Lynda,

lyndacarol wrote:Dignan – In the opening post of this "Summary of the pipeline" thread, in the pre-clinical grouping you have listed:

70. 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-4-ribofuranoside (AICAR) (Medical University of South Carolina)

I am recently interested in AICAR; can you post more information about this University of South Carolina work? I understand some researchers with HHMI have been doing work on AICAR/exercise/diabetes. Do you know if this drug is available OTC or only by prescription or perhaps only to researchers?

I watched an episode of Nova Science Now a while back (probably around July 2009) that discussed AICAR. The show discussed the work by Ronald M. Evans who was at the Salk Institute. Ronald Evans found that AICAR triggers a change in the gene expression in muscle tissue and causes muscle to produce both larger mitochondria and increased numbers of mitochondria. Both of these effects are identical to the physiological effects of endurance exercise such as running. Essentially, it made "couch potato" mice (those without access to an exercise wheel) perform like "long distance runner" mice (those with access to an exercise wheel).

Here are two websites where you can find out more info about Ronald Evans.

The Salk Institute:
http://www.salk.edu/faculty/evans.html

Howard Hughes Medical Institute:
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigat ... s_bio.html

You can also find his papers on PubMed by doing an author search, e.g., "evans rm [au]" though you might find some unrelated work by authors with similar names.

I hope that this is helpful.

For what it's worth, AICAR is available from the chemical supply companies such as Sigma-Aldrich. However, I don't know if it's available from supplement suppliers in a form fit for human consumption.

By the way, it would be interesting to know what Terry Walhs thinks of this research...


NHE

This site list two sources (didn't follow them after4 reading the storage requirements)
http://aicar.co.uk/how-to-buy-aicar/

AICAR should only ever be purchased from a reputable source.

Never purchase from any site making wonderful claims about its efficacy as a diet pill – it is simply not licenced in such a way and if the pills did contain AICAR they would not be allowed to sell them. There is no consumer based pill on the market contaning aicar as yet.

Aicar can be purchased as pure powder requiring storage at between 0 and 5 degrees centigrade as N1-(b-D-Ribofuranosyl)-5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide, it requires rehydrating before use and storage at -20 degrees centrigrade. The correct solubility is 50mg/ml.

Places to buy AICAR;

TRC
Phoenix Peptide

Since endurance exercise is known to reduce insulin resistance (hyperinsulinemia), I have been looking for something to enhance that exercise. AICAR does not seem possible at this time. In following up on NHE's mention of Ronald M. Evans, I came across this abstract of his work:

http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674%2808%2900838-6

The benefits of endurance exercise on general health make it desirable to identify orally active agents that would mimic or potentiate the effects of exercise to treat metabolic diseases. Although certain natural compounds, such as reseveratrol, have endurance-enhancing activities, their exact metabolic targets remain elusive.

I am intrigued by the mention of resveratrol as having endurance-enhancing activities. Perhaps this is the mechanism through which resveratrol has an effect on MS?

CureOrBust wrote:This site list two sources (didn't follow them after4 reading the storage requirements)
http://aicar.co.uk/how-to-buy-aicar/

AICAR should only ever be purchased from a reputable source.

Never purchase from any site making wonderful claims about its efficacy as a diet pill – it is simply not licenced in such a way and if the pills did contain AICAR they would not be allowed to sell them. There is no consumer based pill on the market contaning aicar as yet.

Aicar can be purchased as pure powder requiring storage at between 0 and 5 degrees centigrade as N1-(b-D-Ribofuranosyl)-5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide, it requires rehydrating before use and storage at -20 degrees centrigrade. The correct solubility is 50mg/ml.

Places to buy AICAR;

TRC
Phoenix Peptide

-20°C (-4⁰F) is the temp of a standard non-autodefrosting freezer.


NHE

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I just saw a TV news program regarding ShK (from sea anemone venom, not irvine) Has a human trial started / planned to be completed in the Netherlands.

Thanks Cure. I had seen something about it last week, but could not find any confirmation. I just looked again and there was a press release on August 21: http://tinyurl.com/8gfzkee

I am glad this Kv1.3 channel blocker has finally made it to the clinic after years of press releases and interesting articles written about it.

I just found your update. Thank you so much for the good work dignan! It is really appreciated.

............

Another page from the same site, but I think a little more detailed.
http://www.mymsaa.org/publications/msre ... date-2013/

Anyone seen this:

http://www.ncats.nih.gov/research/reeng ... s/jm4.html

Thank you for this! When I was diagnosed almost 20years ago at 21years old there were only 2 options, betaseron or Avonex. I just turned 40 and still think I have so much more that I want out of life. MS has progressed but I still have hope seeing how much reasearch is being done! It still upsets me that I have MS but I'll stay hopefull that it will be ok.

plz this too old info or update it

CCMR-One: a trial of bexarotene in multiple sclerosis
A trial of a possible remyelinating drug in multiple sclerosis

https://www-neurosciences.medschl.cam.a ... cambridge/

Nerves within the brain and spinal cord are normally protected by a surrounding layer of a substance called myelin. In multiple sclerosis, the immune system of the body attacks this myelin, stripping it off the nerve fibres. This causes the nerves to malfunction, leading to your multiple sclerosis symptoms. Animal studies have shown that a group of drugs can stimulate cells in the brain to repair damaged myelin. This process is called "remyelination". One of the drugs in this group is bexarotene, a capsule already used as an anti-cancer medication. We believe that bexarotene may also promote remyelination in people with multiple sclerosis, which could potentially reverse or alleviate symptoms. The purpose of this research is to assess whether bexarotene causes side effects in people with multiple sclerosis who are also taking disease-modifying drugs and also to assess whether it really can promote remyelination.

The trial is now completed and being analysed. We hope to make the results available at the end of September 2020.

The trial centres were at Cambridge (Prof Alasdair Coles) and Edinburgh (Dr Peter Connick).