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K-PAX, Ritan, and Montoya: Treatment for CFS?

Firestormm

Senior Member
Messages
5,055
Location
Cornwall England
Mill Valley company develops treatment for mysterious chronic fatigue syndrome
By Richard Halstead
Marin Independent Journal


22 March 2014

Chronic fatigue syndrome remains largely a medical mystery; nevertheless, a Mill Valley pharmaceutical company believes it may have developed an effective treatment for the disease.

Researchers are still searching for what causes chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as an effective test to diagnose it. For years, many doctors questioned if the syndrome even existed.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, besides fatigue, other symptoms of CFS "include muscle pain, impaired memory or mental concentration, insomnia, and post-exertion malaise lasting more than 24 hours."

"There are very few pharmaceutical companies working on developing a treatment for this neglected disease," said Dr. Jon Kaiser, chief executive officer of K-PAX Pharmaceuticals in Mill Valley. "Why is this? Because it has been very difficult to understand and no clearly definable pharmaceutical target has been identified."

On Thursday, during an international conference of CFS researchers in San Francisco, Kaiser presented the results of a 12-week pilot study that K-PAX conducted on 15 Bay Area residents with CFS. He said the results were encouraging.

"More than two-thirds of them experienced clinically significant improvement in both fatigue and concentration symptoms," Kaiser said. "One woman had been out of work for six years due to her symptoms and went back to work six weeks after starting this treatment."

The regimen combines a low-dose of methylphenidate, better known as Ritalin, with special nutritional supplements developed by K-PAX.

Next, K-PAX will underwrite a larger, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 120 people with CFS. The research will be done at Stanford University's School of Medicine and three other sites in Salt Lake City, Fort Lauderdale and New York City.

Dr. Jose Montoya, who will be overseeing the study at Stanford, heads an initiative at the university focused on studying chronic diseases suspected to be associated with infection. In addition to CFS, these include chronic Lyme disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and other unexplained chronic illnesses. Montoya suspects that a subset of CFS cases may be triggered by the body's immune response to a pathogen, such as a bacteria or virus.

Dr. Kaiser, a clinical instructor in the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, has never doubted that CFS has a physical cause, never suspected that it is more psychological than physiological. Perhaps that is because Kaiser himself has struggled with the CFS.

"It took me five years to recover from it to the point where I was close to normally functional," Kaiser said. And he said like most people with CFS he has to remain vigilant.

"If I work too hard, if some sort of stress occurs that I can't avoid, I can have a relapse that will last days to weeks," Kaiser said. "One of the things that got me interested in micronutrients and supplements early on was my use of them to help support my recovery."


The nutritional supplements used in K-PAX's treatment were originally developed for a different purpose entirely. K-PAX initially set out to develop a treatment for people with HIV/AIDS, to ameliorate the side effects of anti-viral drugs.

"Our original research was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb, and it was to develop a compound of micronutrients that support healthy mitochondria function," Kaiser said. "Because the early anti-HIV anti-viral drugs were found to be highly toxic to mitochondria functioning."

Micronutrients are commonly referred to as vitamins and minerals. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, which transform energy into forms that the cell can use.

Bristol-Myers didn't pursue development of K-PAX's treatment, however, because newer anti-viral drugs were soon developed that were less toxic to the mitochondria. But a new use for the nutrients soon emerged.

"A few years ago, it was identified that mitochondria dysfunction was potentially at the heart of chronic fatigue syndrome," Kaiser said. "So we redirected our research towards chronic fatigue syndrome."

Used alone neither methylphenidate nor the K-PAX supplements have proven effective as a treatment for CFS, Kaiser said, but the combination of the two seem to produce a synergistic result.

"The micronutrients help protect the patients from the stimulant's side effects," Kaiser said, "and the stimulant act as a catalyst to make the micronutrients work better."

Leonard Jason, a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago who is studying CFS in teenagers and its possible link to mononucleosis, said stimulants, such as Ritalin, have been used to treat some high-functioning individuals with CFS, he added, "I haven't seen any studies that indicate vitamins have these type of positive effects."

"Is this the panacea? Is this the solution for patients with CFS? I don't think so," Jason said. "Possibly with the right physician and the right dose, it might be helpful for some. That is what they are going to try to demonstrate."


Read more: http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci...develops-treatment-mysterious-chronic-fatigue
 
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A.B.

Senior Member
Messages
3,780
I remain skeptical about any claims that a stimulant is useful in ME/CFS because it seems to contradict the observation of post-exertional malaise. I expect that those reporting strong positive results will either experience an equally strong relapse later on, or be found to never having PEM in the first place. Follow ups are important here.

The nutritional supplements are probably going to be mildly to moderately helpful for improving general well being, but far from a cure.
 
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barbc56

Senior Member
Messages
3,657
Wow, more energy and a film I somwhow missed! I am head over heels lusting dazzled by Kevin Spacey! I know, I know, but a fantasy is a fantasy.

It just doesn't get any better than this!

(Clears throat.) Sorry, didn't mean to get off topic, but Mr. Stone seems to have a good sense of humor. Carry on, be calm.:whistle:

Barb who has had way to much caffeine, so I guess this is energy related.:rolleyes:
 
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August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
Even with such a small dose of Ritalin, over time there is a good chance that tolerance will become an issue if it is taken daily. "Holidays" of not taking the stimulant is the best way to avoid this and it can be as small as taking 1 day of a week. Two to three day holidays or longer are the minimum preferred though, which is normally done monthly.

They don't work as well either if the patient has a untreated low performing thyroid function.