secret OTC drug could help remyelination

A forum to discuss Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency and its relationship to Multiple Sclerosis.
Post Reply
Cece
Family Elder
Posts: 9335
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2010 3:00 pm
Contact:

secret OTC drug could help remyelination

Post by Cece »

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/M ... id=5517461
This researcher -- who I won't name because it could lead MS patients to hound him for immediate details -- said he had developed a high-throughput screen for drugs that could induce remyelination of MS-damaged nerve fibers.

Employed on 1,000 readily available drug compounds, the top hit turned out to be a nationally advertised drug available in supermarkets.

He mentioned it here during a talk at the American Neurological Association's annual meeting, and also that a clinical trial was set to begin soon. I caught up with him afterward, eager for details that I could put into a story. He expressed concern that putting the drug's name out where MS patients would see it could "contaminate" the trial. (Telling about it to a few hundred neurologists at a conference seemed safe, he said.)
I wonder if this is a reaction to the patient activism surrounding CCSVI. The researcher is keeping the name of the over-the-counter drug secret so we don't all go out and try it.
User avatar
Hooch
Family Member
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:00 pm

Re: secret OTC drug could help remyelination

Post by Hooch »

I read this this morning. I made a comment on the possibility that the reason for not disclosing the name of the drug had to do with money. I also referenced CCSVI in this as another example of not having a huge benefit financially (implying drug companies).
User avatar
DougL
Family Elder
Posts: 384
Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:00 pm

Re: secret OTC drug could help remyelination

Post by DougL »

"this particular drug has side effects that could worsen a key clinical manifestation of MS,"

depression? fatigue?

my wife tells me that if she could fix her legs then she could live with the rest of her symptoms
User avatar
cheerleader
Family Elder
Posts: 5361
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:00 pm
Location: southern California

Re: secret OTC drug could help remyelination

Post by cheerleader »

That researcher needs to get over himself..."contaminate his trial." What a jerk. How about, help people feel better?
It's probably this---cough medicine.
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/publish/news/research/5530

But there's no need to chug Dextromethorphan---
Here are some other ways to boost your own oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and remyelinate your brain--

1. Sleep---
They found that during sleep, hundreds of transcripts that govern the synthesis of cells called oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are up-regulated during sleep, while genes involved in cell death, cell stress response and cell differentiation are up-regulated during wake. An assay of living cells confirmed that OPC proliferation doubles during sleep, especially during rapid eye movement phase (REM sleep) associated with dreaming.
http://www.med.wisc.edu/news-events/sle ... ion-/41696

2. and make sure your hormones are balanced---

a. Vitamin D3----
However, one of the main findings of our microarray experiment is that calcitriol upregulates genes involved in myelination.
b. Progesterone---
These results suggest that early progesterone treatment enhanced the density of OPC and induced their differentiation into mature oligodendrocytes by increasing the expression of Olig2 and Nkx2.2.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19053058

c. Thyroid hormones---
These results indicate that thyroid hormone affects NSC and OPC proliferation and maturation also in adulthood.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15450085

cheer
Husband dx RRMS 3/07
dx dual jugular vein stenosis (CCSVI) 4/09
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com
User avatar
DougL
Family Elder
Posts: 384
Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:00 pm

Re: secret OTC drug could help remyelination

Post by DougL »

Nuedexta is a combination of dextromethorphan hydrobromide and quinidine sulfate
...
Nuedexta is approved to treat pseudobulbar affect (uncontrolled episodes of crying and or laughing that are disconnected from or out of proportion to what the person is feeling at the time) in people with multiple sclerosis...

The exact mechanism of action of this medication is unknown....

Secondary outcomes, including patient diaries and episode-free days, also suggested significant benefit among groups taking Nuedexta.


i did see studies of this type but not for myelin repair.

i wonder if many people are taking Nuedexta and if they can see repair. is that what they refer to above with "Secondary outcomes".

i can see a patient reporting "I have had three days with no episodes of pseudobulbar affect. Ironically, my walking is much better too. Must be just cause i feel better without suffering from the pseudobulbar affect."
User avatar
MarkW
Family Elder
Posts: 1167
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:00 pm
Location: Oxfordshire, England
Contact:

Old (2011) Secret ??

Post by MarkW »

I think this is the paper:
Neurobiology of Disease, Volume 44, Issue 1, October 2011, Pages 63-72. Olga V. Chechneva, Florian Mayrhofer, Daniel J. Daugherty, David E. Pleasure, Jau-Shyong Hong and Wenbin Deng. (whole paper costs 40USD on line)
Was someone fishing for funding and 'leaked' this to a journalist??? Fluoxetiene also helps re-myelination but no funding. Vit D3 and Calcitrol are key for pwMS but attract little research funds. All these drugs are off patent, so no funds for reasearch. :cry:
MarkW

Abstract
Dextromethorphan (DM) is a dextrorotary morphinan and a widely used component of cough medicine. Relatively high doses of DM in combination with quinidine are used for the treatment of mood disorders for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, at lower doses, morphinans exert anti-inflammatory activities through the inhibition of NOX2-dependent superoxide production in activated microglia. Here we investigated the effects of high (10 mg/kg, i.p., “DM-10”) and low (0.1 mg/kg, i.p., “DM-0.1”) doses of DM on the development and progression of mouse experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS. We found no protection by high dose DM treatment. Interestingly, a minor late attenuation by low dose DM treatment was seen in severe EAE that was characterized by a chronic disease course and a massive spinal cord infiltration of CD45+ cells including T-lymphocytes, macrophages and neutrophils.
Furthermore, in a less severe form of EAE, where lower levels of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells, Iba1+ microglia/macrophages and no significant infiltration of neutrophils were seen in the spinal cord, the treatment with DM-0.1 was remarkably more beneficial. The effect was the most significant at the peak of disease and was associated with an inhibition of NOX2 expression and a decrease in infiltration of monocytes and lymphocytes into the spinal cord. In addition, chronic treatment with low dose DM resulted in decreased demyelination and reduced axonal loss in the lumbar spinal cord. Our study is the first report to show that low dose DM is effective in treating EAE of moderate severity. Our findings reveal that low dose morphinan DM treatment may represent a new promising protective strategy for treating MS.
======================================
Mark Walker - Oxfordshire, England. Retired Industrial Pharmacist. 24 years of study about MS.
CCSVI Comments:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/8359854/MS-experts-in-Britain-have-to-open-their-minds.html
Cece
Family Elder
Posts: 9335
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2010 3:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Old (2011) Secret ??

Post by Cece »

MarkW wrote:Was someone fishing for funding and 'leaked' this to a journalist??? Fluoxetiene also helps re-myelination but no funding. Vit D3 and Calcitrol are key for pwMS but attract little research funds. All these drugs are off patent, so no funds for reasearch. :cry:
The researcher mentioned it at the recent neurological conference (ANA) and the medscape journalist wanted to make a headline out of it, but the researcher asked him not to.

Sleep and hormones seem to be two things that are improved after successful ccsvi venoplasty. (!)

Has anyone here experimented with dextromorphan?
LR1234
Family Elder
Posts: 1517
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:00 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Re: secret OTC drug could help remyelination

Post by LR1234 »

I tried dm.....didn't do much for me:( I took benilyn dry cough mixture low dose for 3 months.....
User avatar
NHE
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 6227
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 3:00 pm
Contact:

Re: secret OTC drug could help remyelination

Post by NHE »

To revive an old topic (in light about the recent reports regarding Anavex2-73)...

Dextromethorphan attenuates trimethyltin-induced neurotoxicity via sigma1 receptor activation in rats
Neurochem Int. 2007 May;50(6):791-9.

We showed that dextromethorphan (DM) provides neuroprotective/anticonvulsant effects and that DM and its major metabolite, dextrorphan, have a high-affinity for sigma(1) receptors, but a low affinity for sigma(2) receptors. In addition, we found that DM has a higher affinity than DX for sigma(1) sites, whereas DX has a higher affinity than DM for PCP sites. We extend our earlier findings by showing that DM attenuated trimethyltin (TMT)-induced neurotoxicity (convulsions, hippocampal degeneration and spatial memory impairment) in rats. This attenuation was reversed by the sigma(1) receptor antagonist BD 1047, but not by the sigma(2) receptor antagonist ifenprodil. DM attenuates TMT-induced reduction in the sigma(1) receptor-like immunoreactivity of the rat hippocampus, this attenuation was blocked by the treatment with BD 1047, but not by ifenprodil. These results suggest that DM prevents TMT-induced neurotoxicity, at least in part, via sigma(1) receptor stimulation.
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI)”