Dr. Nancy Klimus has spent most of her 30-year research career finding cures for Gulf War illnesses. Military veterans with an unusual and unexplained illness affecting approximately 300,000 U.S. soldiers who fought in the 1991 Desert Storm Operation suffered constant pain, pain, loss of concentration, and fatigue. I suffer from a variety of symptoms, including sensation, respiratory problems, and irritable bowel syndrome. It is understood that bowel syndrome, all due to exposure to neurotoxic chemicals during combat.
There is no cure for the Gulf War illness, except for symptom management (she says it's really just "chasing the dog's tail"). And the clock is ticking. If left untreated, the condition can turn into a severe neurodegenerative disease, according to Klimus, director of the Institute of Neuroimmunology, University of Nova Southeastern Florida.
"I'm anxious to get there as soon as possible and help these veterans," said Klimus, director of the Environmental Medicine Research Program at the Miami Veterans Medical Center. "It's been thirty years now."
Now she hopes this help will finally come in a clinical trial of a male veteran launched at the Miami Veterans Hospital. In this study, she tests a combination of the two drugs. Both have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for a variety of uses.
One is the arthritis drug etanercept or enbrel. The other is mifepristone —well known as an abortion drug
The first to bring some relief to these veterans if a successful clinical trial is successful. Klimus expects it to be a step. However, as theSupreme Court overturned the legal rights to abortion established in the Roe v. Wade case, researchers studying mifepristone for non-abortion uses have their own set. You may face challenges.
Versatile drug
Since being approved by the FDA in 2000, mifepristone and misoprostol tablets have been safe for women. It is an effective option. Ask for an abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone is currently used in more than half of abortions in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports the right to abortionThe drug is a hormone required for pregnancy growth Blocks progesterone, which is. Misoprostol causes spasms and bleeding, emptying the uterus.
Mifepristone is best used indrug-induced abortionAs is known, its potential use goes beyond ending early pregnancy.
This is due to multiple biological effects. This explains why it works in an irrelevant state, such as a veteran with a brain injury or a pregnant woman seeking an abortion. In addition to blocking progesterone, thehormone cortisol
cortisol is sometimes called a stress hormone because it is released in response to stress. However, cortisol also plays an important role in regulating blood pressure, blood sugar, metabolism, inflammation and sleep cycles. In short, too much cortisol can cause many illnesses. Having a safe and effective way to block the receptors that cortisol needs to act on these systems is of value to physicians treating all types of conditions.
At a dose slightly higher than the approved dose for abortion, mifepristone is also FDA approved for the treatment of Cushing's syndrome, a rare disease characterized by excess cortisol.
"This is a very good drug and a very powerful drug," Miami has been using mifepristone to treat patients with Cushing's syndrome since it was first approved. Dr. Atil Kargi, an endocrinologist at the university, said. "And there is no long-term toxicity we are aware of."
"This chemical ... yes, it causes abortion, but it does many other amazing things. "Masu," said Leslie Edwin, patient and chairman of the Cushing's Syndrome Support Research Foundation. Edwin said he has been dependent on mifepristone for 18 months to manage the effects of excess cortisol in the body, such as severe weight gain and type 2 diabetes. "I had the option of a cortisol controller and I was grateful that it worked for me," she said.
"This is the only drug on the market," Klimas said. "If you remove this, you're removing a great big tool."
"This is the only medicine on the market," Klimus said. "If you remove this, you're removing a big tool."
"This is the only drug on the market," Klimas said. "If you remove this, you're removing a great big tool.
Pharmaceutical companies, including Corcept Therapeutics, which sells Mifepristone for Cushing's Syndrome under the name Korlym, block cortisol but progesterone. Is working on new drugs that do not block, but there is still a long way to go before they become available.
Apart from the two FDA-approved uses, mifepristone is a breast cancer, It has also been investigated in clinical trials such as brain cancer, progesterone cancer, alcohol dependence, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression.
Rita, Dean of the Department of Breast Oncology at Chicago University Dr. Nanda is conducting several breast cancer clinical trials investigating the effects of mifepristone and chemotherapy. In previous studies, chemistry was given to patients with activated sugar cortisol receptors in breast cancer tumors. It has been shown that the therapy does not work well, Nanda said.
"By blocking the sugar cortisol receptor with mifepristone, we can increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy. I want it, "she said. She is also in the early stages of trying to determine if this strategy is effective for ovarian and prostate cancer.
Klimus said he chose to try mifepristone in the Gulf War illness test. Mifepristone was the safest approved drug to do what she wanted to block the receptors that stress hormones bind to. She said she was trying to reset the stress signals in the brains of veterans with these illnesses by temporarily blocking these receptors.
"We are trying to reuse the drug so that it can be delivered quickly to these people," she said.
