posted
Just finished watching program on medical cannabis. They are using it to treat fluoroquinolone damage, or maybe they said they're treating the pain from it? Not sure which. It's in the Sacred Plant program series.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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TX Lyme Mom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3162
posted
Nature came out with a new article just this last week, "When Antibiotics Turn Toxic." (Nature, vol. 555, pg. 431-433, 3/22/2018) by Jo Marchant.
It discusses primarily the quinolone family of antibiotics (Ciprofloxacin and Levaquine, the two best known) and a new syndrome of potentially permanent symptoms recently recognized (in 2016) by the FDA called "fluoroquinolone-associated disability (FQAD).
FQAD sounds kinda' scary and it is. That's why it's wise to be aware of it because quinolones are used whenever other ordinary antibiotics have failed, as well as for primarily life-threatening situations.
The FDA also noted a disturbing pattern: fluoroquinolones had a much higher percentage of disabilities among their serious adverse event reports than did other antibiotics.
Accumulating evidence suggests that fluoroquinolones are damaging mitochondria, the power packs inside human cells that evolved from symbiotic, bacteria-like cells billions of years ago.
This kind of harm can affect every cell in the body, explaining why a wide range of symptoms can appear and get worse over time.
Because mitochondria retain some similarities to their bacterial ancestors, antibiotics can pose a particular threat to them.
Isolated studies from the 1980s on wards have suggested that fluoroquinolones impair mitochondrial function, but a 2013 study by Collins, et al is the most convincing.
They reported that antibiotics in several classes triggered oxidative stress -- a build-up of reactive, oxygen-containing molecules -- in mitochondria, inhibiting their function across a range of mammalian cells.
"We were surprised at how strong the effect was and how common the effect was across different classes," Collins says. But "the largest effects were seen in the quinolones."
At a conference last September, Bennett reported preliminary data that might hint at why only some people develop serious side effects from fluoroquinolones.
He took saliva samples from 24 people who reported neuropsychiatric side effects -- such as memory loss, panic attacks and depression -- and found that 13 of them (57%) shared a gene variant usualy seen in only 9% of the population.
Bennett is not revealing the gene's identity because he has a patent application in process, but he says that it seems to be a site related to poor metabolism of the quinolones.
Such a mutation might allow dangerously high levels of the drug to accumulate in cells, including in the brain. Bennett is now conducting a trial with 100 more participants to see if he can replicate the result.
If so, that might lead to a genetic test to identify people who should not be given these drugs.
He and Murphy have also found, in lab studies, that giving antioxidants alongside fluoroquinolones seems to mitigate the effects on the mitochondria. But such trials are difficult and expensive, particularly for drugs that are given in sometimes life-threatening situations.
Golomb is currently conducting an unfunded on-line survey to gather information on the experiences of thousands of patients..She hopes that it will lead to hypotheses about what might mitigate harms that could be tested in clinical trials.
But little support is available. That's typical for research on drug safety. ''Investigating medications that have been on the market for years isn't a priority for research agencies such as the NIH," says Bennett.
Manufacturers don't have an incentive to fund post-market safety studies, particularly for off-patent drugs such as cipro and levofloxacin, where the vast majority of sales are from generic firms.
Another factor is scientists' reluctance to publish results that drug companies might find unfavorable. "There's a long history of adverse action against people who expose drug and chemical harms," says Golomb.
Note: I've extracted excerpts from this article, mostly verbatim, since Nature is not sold on news stands, but is a very expensive academic subscription journal, found primarily in university libraries.
Posts: 4563 | From TX | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
Someone I know just got terribly injured from taking a fluoroquinolone - she got stem cell injections recently to attempt to repair the body damage. Will post an update when I hear how it's going.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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klutzo
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5701
posted
Wow, this is so depressing and scary.
Fluroquinolones are the only class of ABX that I am not allergic to now. I thought I'd never had a single sx from them, but....
I was dx'd with Vit. B6 toxicity neuropathy and told it would go away in a year, about 6 yrs. ago. It went slowly down in degree, and it's good it did, or I would have taken my life it was so awful.
The heat and numbness is permanent in my toes though, and sometimes flares up for no apparent reason all over with burning skin and chills to the bone. My temp drops below hypothermia and I need an electric blanket in very hot weather, but with my feet sticking out bare.
I was told never to take any B6 supplement again and as a result can't take the B Complex that really helped my depression.
Now I wonder if it was the Cipro I took long before that caused it and just a coincidence it happened when I raised my B6 from 50 mgs. a day to 200 mgs. daily, thinking I probably had Pyroluria.
Metronizadole cures me, and I mean it takes away every sx I have for as long as I am on it. They won't give it to me since they say it destroys the liver, not to mention gut bacteria. I do not think of it as an ABX though, but as an antifungual.
I appear to be screwed. Big hug to all of you who have suffered from this problem.
Posts: 1269 | From Clearwater, Florida, USA | Registered: May 2004
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