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How can we help accelerate Dr Naviaux's ME/CFS Suramin trial?

Jesse2233

Senior Member
Messages
1,942
Location
Southern California
At the OMF Symposium Dr Naviaux mentioned that trials of Suramin have been delayed.

The profit motive is not there for Suramin's manufacturer Bayer because the drug is out of patent and off brand. He did mention that another company is gearing up to produce it, but that it will take a year and half.

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Here's what we know so far about Suramin:

- it works on the purinergic pathway which Naviaux believes is central to core ME/CFS pathology

- it significantly improved the ability of Ron Davis' ME/CFS cells to pump out sodium in vitro

- it improved austism symptoms in a small pilot study

- it requires FDA approval to be imported into the US

It's promising but certainly not conclusive. However it's the closest thing we have to a plausible repurposable treatment outside of Rituximab, Cyclophosphamide, Ampligen, Rapamune, and the various cytokine inhibitors.

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My question to the community is what can we do collectively to help Dr Naviaux acquire Suramin more quickly and speed up trials?

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Some ideas:
  1. Put collective pressure on Bayer to support Naviaux's research
  2. Petition the World Health Organization to supply the drug
  3. Encourage Dr William Weir to run his own pilot trial in the U.K. using the Suramin supply he has access to
  4. Find a doctor in Nigeria (country with one of the highest incidences of ME/CFS and likely access to Suramin) to partner with Naviaux on a pilot ME/CFS trial
  5. Find a West African doctor willing to use Suramin in a Post Ebola Syndrome trial
Edit: Support Naviaux's work here
 
Last edited:

Jesse2233

Senior Member
Messages
1,942
Location
Southern California
Jesse, I've never heard that before re: Nigeria having the highest incidence of ME/CFS?! Was that new info from the conference today and how did they measure it?

I don't think it was mentioned at the conference and I can't remember where I heard Nigeria was the highest, but here's a study showing that it's higher there than in the US.

Until I find a reference saying it's the highest I'm gojng to edit my post to say "one of the highest"
 

ScottTriGuy

Stop the harm. Start the research and treatment.
Messages
1,402
Location
Toronto, Canada
I don't think it was mentioned at the conference and I can't remember where I heard Nigeria was the highest, but here's a study showing that it's higher there than in the US.

Until I find a reference saying it's the highest I'm gojng to edit my post to say "one of the highest"

Canada wins this competition, our rate is 1.9% (in 2015), an increase of 37.6% over the previous year, so that more than 560,000 Canadians had ME.
 

MeSci

ME/CFS since 1995; activity level 6?
Messages
8,231
Location
Cornwall, UK
Jesse, I've never heard that before re: Nigeria having the highest incidence of ME/CFS?! Was that new info from the conference today and how did they measure it?
There are lots of hits from a search here for 'Nigeria', some of which give (likely?) prevalence.
 

Alvin2

The good news is patients don't die the bad news..
Messages
2,997
Canada wins this competition, our rate is 1.9% (in 2015), an increase of 37.6% over the previous year, so that more than 560,000 Canadians had ME.
I heard the ME/CFS story made CTV news the other day despite trump's war plans
 

necessary8

Senior Member
Messages
134
Beat me to the puch with the thread ^ ^

I like the first 3 ideas, though I don't know how exactly you know that William Weir has access to suramin. Care to explain that one?

One way or another I think we should write a petition to both WHO and Bayer and start getting signatures
 

me/cfs 27931

Guest
Messages
1,294
Had a thought. Suramin is also used in the treatment of river blindness (onchocerciasis).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0045224/

Looking at the geographical distribution of onchocerciasis, one of the affected countries is Mexico.

http://www.who.int/onchocerciasis/distribution/en/

Mexico is literally just a few miles from San Diego/Dr. Naviaux.
Distribution_onchocerciasis_2013.pdf
 

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
Had a thought. Suramin is also used in the treatment of river blindness (onchocerciasis).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0045224/

Looking at the geographical distribution of onchocerciasis, one of the affected countries is Mexico.

http://www.who.int/onchocerciasis/distribution/en/

Mexico is literally just a few miles from San Diego/Dr. Naviaux.
Distribution_onchocerciasis_2013.pdf
Not sure if Suramin was used in Mexico, here what we can find in wiki:

"Onchocerciasis was eliminated in the northern focus in Chiapas, Mexico,[41] and the focus in Oaxaca, Mexico, where Onchocerca volvulus existed, was determined, after several years of treatment with ivermectin, as free of the transmission of the parasite.[42]"