Has pseudan been found to be effective for friedreich's ataxia

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Request for Question Clarification by librariankt-ga on 16 Jul 2004 11:40 PDT

Hi Roskill,

I am also unfamiliar with "pseudan."  Where did you see this
referenced? In a quick look at the articles in MEDLINE I've found that
the most popular treatments are antioxidants, Coenzyme Q10, and
idebenone.  Are any of those of interest?

Librariankt

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Request for Question Clarification by librariankt-ga on 23 Jul 2004 12:43 PDT

Roskill,

Trials with pseudan have not been released (nor has the drug been
approved).  I'm not even sure they're out in clinical trials, from
what I've read on the 'net.  However, other iron chelators have been
tested.  Would you be interested in information on those?  Otherwise,
it appears the answer to your question is "not yet, try back later".

By the way, I checked the NCI Investigational Drugs and New Medicines
in Development databases (as well at Centerwatch, suggested by
purkinje) and found no entries for pseudan.  This leads me to think
that it's still being investigated and hasn't entered clinical trials.

Please let me know if we can close out this question - especially if
there are additional areas I can research for you!

Librariankt

What is psuedan?? I don't recognize that drug at all. Pseudoephedrine? Sudafed?

Pseudan is a new drug that has just been developed.It is a iron
chelator so removes the iron from the mitochondria and the surrounding
cells.

Hey, in theory, yes, this drug could work, but unless examined by the
FDA, we can't know all the side-effects (one of which could very well
be chelating too much iron, since iron is necessary for cell
metabolism). Current treatments (mentioned above) all involve
antioxidant properties, but iron chelation would be much more
effective in this disease. Current iron chelators like deferoxamine
does not target mitochondria, which is where the problems arise in
f.ataxia. But there is a new type of drug, 2-pyridylcarboxaldehyde
isonicotinoyl hydrazone (PCIH) analogues, that do target iron in the
mitochondria. The first link below is a research article on this drug
(you'll have to pay $50 for the full article, and $35 for the second
article, unless you are a suscriber... but you can read the summaries
for free). I was going to look on www.centerwatch.com (the FDA trial
drug website) for pseudan, but the site is down right now. So if
pseudan is a PCIH analogue, there is a lot of promise. But there are
still tests to be done.

http://dandini.ashley-pub.com/vl=21455475/cl=30/nw=1/rpsv/cgi-bin/linker?ini=ashley&reqidx=1354-3784(2003)L.235

http://www.springerlink.com/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=g19taywqwj6juk8yrqau&referrer=parent&backto=issue,1,14;journal,3,19;linkingpublicationresults,1:101172,1