Hello kcdillon-ga,
The vitamin A derivative you are thinking of is called all-trans
retinoic acid, or sometimes ATRA for short.
ATRA was first shown to reverse symptoms of emphysema, which were
artificially created in rats.
This was reported in 1997 in Nature Medicine in the June issue (Volume
3 (no. 6) p. 675-677) “Retinoic acid treatment abrogates
elastase-induced pulmonary emphysema in rats. by GD Massaro and D
Massaro of Lung Biology Laboratory, Georgetown University School of
Medicine, Washington, DC 20007-2197, USA.
URL for the summary:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9176496&dopt=Abstract
A pilot study was carried out in 20 emphysema patients, and was
reported in an article that appeared in March of this year: “A pilot
study of all-trans-retinoic acid for the treatment of human
emphysema.” by Mao JT, Goldin JG, Dermand J, Ibrahim G, Brown MS,
Emerick A, McNitt-Gray MF, Gjertson DW, Estrada F, Tashkin DP, and
Roth MD. of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, UCLA School of
Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 99095-1690, USA. Published in American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 2002 March (Vol 165
(no 5) p.718-723
The authors found that during 3 months of treatment at a dose of 50
mg/sq.m/day, “treatment was well tolerated and associated with only
mild side effects including skin changes, transient headache,
hyperlipidemia, transaminites, and musculoskeletal pains.” However,
the level of disease as measured by CT scans and physiological
measures such as lung function tests and blood gases did not change.
Nevertheless the authors recommend that it would be useful to continue
further trials at different dose levels and different periods of
treatment.
URL for the summary:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11874821&dopt=Abstract
A second trial was announced last October and is due to last “a couple
of years”. This will take place at UCLA, Boston University, Columbia
University, Unversity of California at San Diego, University of
Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
Details and contact information are available at
http://www.coloradohealthsite.org/COPD/copdpatient_alert.html
(Colorado Health Site COPD Patients’ Alerts). The web site of the
Long Island Jewish Medical Centre has further details of the trial at
http://www.lij.edu/lijh/pulmonary/forte/forte.html. This includes a
description of how emphysema occurs and how ATRA could help. It also
mentions that the trial will include as well as ATRA another form of
the chemical: cis-retinoic acid.
Side effects of oral ATRA can include liver dysfunction, skeletal
malformations, hyperlipidemia. hypercalcemia (high blood levels of fat
and calcium) and other reactions. One group suggested, after doing a
study in rats, that the use of inhaled aerosols could improve results
and reduce complications: “Inhaled aerosolization of
all-trans-retinoic acid for targeted pulmonary delivery.” by
Brooks AD, Tong W, Benedetti F, Kaneda Y, Miller V, Warrell RP Jr. of
Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New
York, NY, USA. Published in 2000 in Cancer Chemotherapy and
Pharmacology Volume 46 (no. 4) p. 313-318
URL for the abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11052629&dopt=Abstract
However, a bulletin from the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute
says that studies in animals using inhaled ATRA have not so far been
successful. http://www.lrri.org/cr/emphycopd.html (scroll about half
way down the page) |
