Combination treatment based shows promise for treatment of retinal degenerations, drug repurposing study finds

Medical Xpress / University of Eastern Finland / Nature Communications ^ | July 22, 2024 | Henri Leinonen et al

[ConservativeMind]

Drug repurposing shows promise in the treatment of retinal degenerations, according to a new study. A combination treatment incorporating three existing drugs—tamsulosin, metoprolol and bromocriptine—slowed disease progression in pre-clinical retinopathy models.

Drug repurposing refers to the use of existing drugs to treat diseases or conditions that they were not originally developed or approved for. The new study focused on drug repurposing in the context of inherited retinal degenerations, IRDs.

IRDs are a group of genetic diseases that cause the deterioration of retinal anatomy and function, leading to gradual loss of vision and often blindness. Most IRDs are currently inaccessible therapeutically, comprising an unmet medical need for a substantial population worldwide.

The researchers found that a combination treatment incorporating three drugs significantly slowed disease progression and decreased disease manifestation in four different animal models of IRD. The combination included the blood pressure and heart failure drug metoprolol, and tamsulosin, which is used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia, as well as the nowadays less commonly used Parkinson's disease drug bromocriptine.

In retinal degenerations, intracellular secondary messengers such as cyclic adenosine monophosphate and calcium are believed to be overactive, exacerbating the disease. Metoprolol, tamsulosin and bromocriptine suppress the activity of these secondary messengers via their own distinct cell membrane-receptor actions.

"We hypothesized that the combined effect of these drugs would alleviate the disease, which it indeed did in several distinct animal models of IRDs," Dr. Leinonen notes.

It is noteworthy that none of the drugs used in the study were effective against retinal degeneration on their own; instead, their combination was necessary for efficacy. According to Dr. Leinonen, the same phenomenon may apply to many diseases that are currently untreatable, and especially in multifactorial diseases, effective treatment may require multiple drugs to be used simultaneously.

[Red Badger]

I already take 2 of the 3.......

[imardmd1]

Re my Post #5 re the statement:

. . . I was already taking 500 mg of vitamin C . . .

I misspoke there. It was 1,400 mg of vitamin C that I was taking daily in the self-administered Vitamin Shoppe "Quercetin Plus" capsules, each of which contained 500 mg quercetin plus 1,400 mg vitamin C, a hefty dose of both in the protocol for suppressing the C-19 virus.

And that worked, also, which coupled with the zinc gluconate to potentiate the resistance to the virus. in the four years since the sprong of 2020, I had one confirmed bush with COVID-19, which lasted two days and then was over with. I never permitted anyone to inject my body with that rotten substance mis-identified as "vaccine." Nor in the decades before that did I EVER permit administration of the "flu shot" to damage my immunity system.