Bumetanide 5mg for Parkinson’s Disease?

I have been asked twice about off-label therapies for Parkinson’s, both times I mentioned Bumetanide, but having rechecked the literature, there is now plenty of supporting data, enough that a clinical trial has now been put in motion in France.

Parkinson’s disease is all about a lack of dopamine and bumetanide is all about making GABA work as inhibitory. You might wonder why is Peter suggesting people to talk to their doctor about giving their elderly parents a diuretic. Well the lack of dopamine goes on to cause a GABA dysfunction, which is treatable and does improve the symptoms of Parkinson’s.

So, Bumetanide will not cure Parkinson’s, but may reduce its severity.

In the case of the last person who asked me, her mother already takes a diuretic for other reasons, so all she would have to do is to switch drugs to Bumetanide. The doctor was only too happy, when given the evidence, to switch her to Bumetanide - a rare victory for common sense. 

What caught my attention was the dosage of Bumetanide used in the published case histories and the concern about polyuria. Polyuria is too much urination. The dose used was 5mg taken all in one go and that is a lot; you would have to run to the bathroom, which might cause falls in people with poor balance.

Since we recently discovered that Azosemide has the same effect on GABA as Bumetanide, but can have a less urgent effect as a diuretic, it may be that Azosemide is a better choice for Grandma with Parkinson’s.  Incontinence can be a feature of Parkinson’s disease.  The ideal drug will be the new one being developed by Neurochloré for autism.

Standard Parkinson’s Drugs

Since most symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) are caused by a lack of dopamine in the brain, many PD drugs are aimed at either temporarily replenishing dopamine or mimicking the action of dopamine. These types of drugs are called dopaminergic medications. They generally help reduce muscle rigidity, improve speed and coordination of movement and lessen tremor.

L-DOPA, the standard treatment for Parkinson’s is actually also used in some people with autism, in particular people with Angelman Syndrome, although it failed in a clinical trial.

Bumetanide for Parkinson’s?

The clinical trial for Parkinson’s will use the standard rating scale (UPDRS) that is very much centered on motor skills. There is a tiny part on memory.

Cognition is affected in Parkinson’s and this might be another area that improves with Bumetanide; but someone has to bother to measure it.

Nobody has measured the effect of Bumetanide on IQ in those with autism, even though the effect can be substantial.

                                  

Bumetanide to Treat Parkinson Disease: A Report of 4 Cases

Four patients suffering from idiopathic PD at the stage of motor fluctuation were included. All of them gave their written informed consent to receive open-label bumetanide. Bumetanide was progressively titrated up to 3 mg/d (once daily) received for a month. After having verified the good tolerability of the treatment, bumetanide was increased to 5 mg/d (once daily) and received for another month. Bumetanide was added to the patient's usual antiparkinsonian treatment that was maintained stable the month before and unchanged during the study. The patients were assessed before and at 1 and 2 months after the initiation of bumetanide.

At each visit, the patient was asked about any side effects having occurred since the last visit. A Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS)19 was performed before and after 2 months of treatment in a practical OFF stage (the patients came in the afternoon, having not taken antiparkinsonian drugs for 4 hours, and confirmed to be in an OFF stage). At the end of the study, the patient was also asked to give a global impression of change compared with baseline.

Case 3

The patient was a 58-year-old man with a 21-year history of

PD. After early development of disabling motor fluctuation and dyskinesia despite an optimized drug treatment, bilateral subthalamic electrodes were implanted 16 years ago for continuous deep brain stimulation (DBS). He got an excellent control of PD motor symptoms. However, after a year of DBS treatment, he started to develop freezing of gait and dysarthria. Despite many attempts of adjusting the treatment (DBS parameters, changes in drug treatment, and physiotherapy), these symptoms remained disabling and even slowly worsened with time. Motor fluctuation and dyskinesia were well controlled by both DBS (left side: case positive, electrode 2 negative, voltage 3.5 V; right side: case positive, electrode 1 negative, voltage 3 V; for both sides: pulse width 60 microseconds, frequency 100 Hz) and drug treatment. The latter consisted of L-DOPA, 1000 mg/d (5 intakes per day); ropinirole, 2 mg/d; and amantadine, 200 mg/d. The freezing of gait was highly disabling.

At home, the patient could walk a few steps alone with a high risk of falls. Most of the time, he was wheelchair bound. After a few days of bumetanide at a dosage of 5 mg/d, the gait dramatically improved. He was able to walk almost 1000 m without any help.

The voice was unchanged. The UPDRS III in the OFF stage was hardly changed (10% improvement), and the UPDRS II in the worst state improved by 15%. The UPDRS II in the best condition was unchanged (21 to 18). The patient and the caregiver assessed the general improvement at 50%. Despite the polyuria and the fatigue, he has decided to continue the bumetanide treatment.

After a few weeks, the improvement of gait was less dramatic but still noticeable.

GABAergic inhibition in dual-transmission cholinergic and GABAergic striatal interneurons is abolished in Parkinson disease 

We report that half striatal cholinergic interneurons are dual transmitter cholinergic and GABAergic interneurons (CGINs) expressing ChAT, GAD65, Lhx7, and Lhx6 mRNAs, labeled with GAD and VGAT, generating monosynaptic dual cholinergic/GABAergic currents and an inhibitory pause response. Dopamine deprivation increases CGINs ongoing activity and abolishes GABAergic inhibition including the cortico-striatal pause because of high [Cl⁻]_i levels. Dopamine deprivation also dramatically increases CGINs dendritic arbors and monosynaptic interconnections probability, suggesting the formation of a dense CGINs network. The NKCC1 chloride importer antagonist bumetanide, which reduces [Cl⁻]_ilevels, restores GABAergic inhibition, the cortico-striatal pause-rebound response, and attenuates motor effects of dopamine deprivation. Therefore, most of the striatal cholinergic excitatory drive is balanced by a concomitant powerful GABAergic inhibition that is impaired by dopamine deprivation. The attenuation by bumetanide of cardinal features of Parkinson’s disease paves the way to a novel therapeutic strategy based on a restoration of low [Cl⁻]_i levels and GABAergic inhibition.

Evaluation ofthe Efficacy and Safety of Bumetanide in Parkinson's Disease (CUREPARK)

Official Title:	A Randomized Double-blind Placebo-controlled Multicenter Proof-of-concept Trial to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of Bumetanide in Parkinson's Disease
Actual Study Start Date  :	April 26, 2019
Estimated Primary Completion Date  :	September 2020
Estimated Study Completion Date  :	August 2021

Conclusion

There is now a long list of neurological conditions that may respond to bumetanide:-

·        Autism

·        Fragile-X Syndrome

·        Down Syndrome

·        Schizophrenia

·        Huntington’s Disease

·        Parkinson’s Disease

In addition, it is obvious that some epilepsy will respond to Bumetanide. The original epilepsy drug from 150 years ago, KBr, has the same mechanism of action, lowering chloride within neurons.

Perhaps higher doses of Bumetanide need to be trialled in autism, 5mg all at once is far higher than what has been used so far in studies.

Wandering, Water, Sense of Danger and Accidents

We were recently at the seaside in Greece, where Monty was enjoying swimming in the sea. He is now a very competent swimmer and behaves in the water just like any other confident swimmer. Together with Mum he actually rescued a Russian swimmer in distress.  Monty does not get crazy ideas to swim to islands in the distance, or anything like that. Not so far, at least. 

Water is behind a shocking number of wanderings and deaths.

In the North American media, you can see that on a very regular basis children with autism and/or ID/MR (Intellectual Disability/Mental Retardation) wander off and get lost. Very often they are found in or beside water.

In Europe you hear much less frequently about children wandering. A high-profile case recently was an Irish teenage girl with MR/ID who disappeared while on holiday at a tiny jungle resort in Malaysia.  She left behind an open ground floor window and was found 10 days later beside a stream in a ravine a mile away. 

She had holoprosencephaly, which is an umbrella term for conditions relating to when the forebrain of the embryo fails to develop into two separate hemispheres, it includes Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (ACC) when the part of the brain that is supposed to connect the two hemispheres fails to develop. Partial ACC and the exact opposite are features appearing in some severe autism.

People with MR/ID have no sense of danger and are usually enchanted by water. Wandering is far more likely than abduction.

Another case recently was an American teenager on a cruise arranged by his residential care home, it appears that he jumped over the deck railing at night to go for a swim in the ocean.

Even a bath tub can be dangerous, a young man with autism and epilepsy was left unattended in a bath at a UK care facility. He had a seizure and drowned.

I do think much more could be done to prevent wandering and water-related accidents. Firstly, people (parents) should be made more aware of who is at risk; anyone with a low IQ and unable to travel independently is at risk.

People with ID/MR often live in a world of cartoons, where all kinds of crazy things are possible, like jumping off a cruise ship and nobody ever gets hurt.  Going to a jungle retreat, like you are living in the Jungle Book cartoon, why wouldn’t you sneak downstairs in the night and enter your private jungle world?

Just because you have never been able to wander before does not mean you never will. 

The shortened life expectancy of people with severe autism is in large part down to preventable accidents, seizures and poor basic healthcare.

I do think that treating MR/ID would be much more socially acceptable than treating autism. Understanding the danger of crossing a road, or falling into a lake is more important than being able to tie your shoe laces.  If you can improve cognition with a pill, who could possibly object to that? 

It is no surprise that we have www.Treatable-ID.org but no www.Treatable-ASD.org 

In reality you will struggle to have treating ID taken seriously, although for many people it is possible.

Ginseng Compound K Esters for some Epilepsy, Autism and Cancers?

Many natural products like Ginseng and Curcumin do have long known medicinal properties but suffer from extremely low bioavailability, which limits their benefit.

Ginsenosides are compounds found in the Ginseng plant. They are metabolized by the gut flora into active compounds that include Compound K.  Compound K has been shown to have a variety of pharmacological actions such as anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer and vasorelaxation.  It also has interesting effects that relate to autism and other neurological disorders.

Compound K (CK) has extremely low bioavailability (circa 5%) which limits it potential therapeutic benefit. There are expensive versions of ginseng that aim to maximize Compound K (CK) production in the gut, but they do nothing to improve how much gets from the gut into the bloodstream.

It is possible to modify Compound K by making an ester. This ester has been shown to be highly bioavailable and that means the theoretic benefits, shown in test tubes, might actually be genuinely achieved in humans.

Two types of ester have been studied, the butyl and octyl ester resulting in so-called CK-B and CK-O.

There currently is a $400 million business selling ginseng worldwide, the research and production is mainly coming from Korea and China.  There probably should be pharmaceutical production of CK-B and/or CK-O, but I would not hold your breath.

CK-O was recently proposed as a treatment for some cancers, so perhaps someone will commercialize it.

Interestingly, the standard form CK has been proposed to treat colon cancer, which does make sense since CK is produced in the gut making colon cancer a good choice. You would think that CK-O would work better.

Bcl-2 / Bax

The gene/protein Bcl-2 is relevant to both cancer and autism and has been covered previously in this blog.

A total of 25 genes make up the Bcl-2 family of proteins. Bcl-2 itself is anti-apoptotic while family member Bax is pro-apoptotic.

Apoptosis is programmed cell death.  The Bax/Bcl-2 ratio determines the apoptotic potential of a cell. Increasing the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio can be highly desirable if you have cancer, since what you want is cell death.

Bcl-2 is dysregulated in autism. Studies have shown that the expression of Bcl-2 is significantly decreased in the brain of autistic subjects. This means a reduction in a protein that blocks apoptotic cell death, i.e. this favours growth and too much growth is a bad thing.

https://gene.sfari.org/database/human-gene/BCL2

The big head type of autism (macrocephaly) is associated with hyperactive pro-growth signalling pathways, so reduced expression of Bcl-2 is not a surprise.

CK-O for some cancer

The Compound K ester CK-O  exerts strong anti-tumour activity by suppression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and increase of pro-apoptotic protein Bax. It increases the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio.

CK-O from some epilepsy and some autism?

There are many types of epilepsy and hundreds of types of autism.

One commonly shared feature is the imbalance between the GABA-mediated inhibition and the glutamate-mediated excitation.

CK-O looks likes it might help both conditions.

·        CK is shown to reduce the expression of NMDA receptors and to attenuate the function of the NMDA receptors in the brain.

·        GABA_B receptor activation via CK can regulate KCC2 at the cell surface in a manner that reduces intracellular chloride and hence the reversal potential for GABA_A receptors

·        The expression of KCC2 protein was elevated by the treatment of CK while the expression of NKCC1 protein was reversely down-regulated.

·        CK enhances the expression of GABA_A receptor subunit α1 in the brain and exhibits a tendency to decrease the expression of NMDAR1 protein in the hippocampus.

                                    

Ginseng for Autism?

There is some weak evidence that Ginseng may help in some autism.

I think what is really happening is that the effect is weak rather than the evidence is weak.  Ginseng may have a weak positive effect in some autism; weak because the amount of Compound K absorbed is trivial.

If Ginseng helps, CK-O could be substantially more effective.

Ginseng,as a GABAb Antagonist, as an "Add-on Therapy" for some Autism? Also Homotaurine and Acamprosate

We demonstrate that GABA_BR activation can regulate KCC2 at the cell surface in a manner that alters intracellular chloride and the reversal potential for the GABA_AR

In the trial below the dose appears very low at 250mg. In the more encouraging study in ADHD the dose was 1000mg twice a day.

First preliminary results of an observation of Panax ginseng treatment in patients with autistic disorder.

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, with impairments in reciprocal social interaction and verbal and nonverbal communication. There is often the need of psychopharmacological intervention in addition to psychobehavioral therapies, but benefits are limited by adverse side effects. For that reason, Panax ginseng, which is comparable with Piracetam, a substance effective in the treatment of autism, was investigated for possible improvement of autistic symptoms. There was some improvement, which suggests some benefits of Panax ginseng, at least as an add-on therapy.

I would not expect a dramatic effect from any commercial Ginseng product, but CK-O really could have an effect.

Compound K Derived from Ginseng: Neuroprotection and Cognitive Improvement

Although there are many research reports regarding the bioactive function of ginsenosides and ginseng, studies on the neuroprotective effect and effects on the cognitive function of compound K are limited. It is generally agreed that compound K is more bioavailable than the parent ginsenosides, including Rb1, Rb2, and Rc, and is the major contributing factor to the health benefits of ginseng. However, as most studies were conducted using disease-associated models, such as Alzheimer’s disease and ischemic stroke, the results cannot be directly translated to the healthy normal population. Furthermore, it is not clear whether compound K can cross the blood–brain barrier and exert any action on cognitive function in humans, even though the compound was reported to facilitate GABA release in the hippocampus and exhibit a protective effect against scopolamine-induced hippocampal damage in a mouse model. The possible mechanisms of action of compound K in neuroprotection and cognitive improvement include attenuation of ROS levels in neural cells through induction of antioxidant enzymes, regulation of NO, GABA, and serotonin receptors, Ca 2+ channel modulation, regulation of the MAPK pathway, and inhibition of inflammation.

Although ginseng and ginsenosides were shown to have neuroprotective and cognitive enhancing effects, further research is required to establish whether compound K is the major component of ginseng responsible for cognitive improvement in humans.

The Effects of Ginsenoside Compound K Against Epilepsy by Enhancing the γ-Aminobutyric Acid Signaling Pathway

The imbalance between the GABA-mediated inhibition and the glutamate-mediated excitation is the primary pathological mechanism of epilepsy. GABAergic and glutamatergic neurotransmission have become the most important targets for controlling epilepsy. Ginsenoside compound K (GCK) is a main metabolic production of the ginsenoside Rb1, Rb2, and Rc in the intestinal microbiota. Previous studies show that GCK promoted the release of GABA from the hippocampal neurons and enhanced the activity of GABA_A receptors. GCK is shown to reduce the expression of NMDAR and to attenuate the function of the NMDA receptors in the brain. The anti-seizure effects of GCK have not been reported so far. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of GCK on epilepsy and its potential mechanism. The rat model of seizure or status epilepticus (SE) was established with either Pentylenetetrazole or Lithium chloride-pilocarpine. The Racine’s scale was used to evaluate seizure activity. The levels of the amino acid neurotransmitters were detected in the pilocarpine-induced epileptic rats. The expression levels of GABA_ARα1, NMDAR1, KCC2, and NKCC1 protein in the hippocampus were determined via western blot or immunohistochemistry after SE. We found that GCK had deceased seizure intensity and prolonged the latency of seizures. GCK increased the contents of GABA, while the contents of glutamate remained unchanged. GCK enhanced the expression of GABA_ARα1 in the brain and exhibited a tendency to decrease the expression of NMDAR1 protein in the hippocampus. The expression of KCC2 protein was elevated by the treatment of GCK after SE, while the expression of NKCC1 protein was reversely down-regulated. These findings suggested that GCK exerted anti-epileptic effects by promoting the hippocampal GABA release and enhancing the GABA_AR-mediated inhibitory synaptic transmission.

Absorption mechanismof ginsenoside compound K and its butyl and octyl ester prodrugs in Caco-2cells.

 

Ginsenoside compound K (CK) is a bioactive compound with poor oral bioavailability due to its high polarity, while its novel ester prodrugs, the butyl and octyl ester (CK-B and CK-O), are more lipophilic than the original drug and have an excellent bioavailability. The aim of this study was to examine the transport mechanisms of CK, CK-B, and CK-O using human Caco-2 cells. Results showed that CK had a low permeability coefficient (8.65 × 10(-7) cm/s) for apical-to-basolated (AP-BL) transport at 10-50 μM, while the transport rate for AP to BL flux of CK-B (2.97 × 10(-6) cm/s) and CK-O (2.84 × 10(-6) cm/s) was significantly greater than that of CK. Furthermore, the major transport mechanism of CK was found as passive transcellular diffusion with active efflux mediated by P-glycoprotein (P-gp). In addition, it was found that CK-B and CK-O were not the substrate of efflux transporter since the selective inhibitors (verapamil and MK-571) of efflux transporter had little effects on the transport of CK-B and CK-O in the Caco-2 cells. These results suggest that improving the lipophilicity of CK by acylation can significantly improve the transport across Caco-2 cells.

Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer, the active components of which are mainly ginsenosides, is frequently utilized as a herbal drug in traditional oriental medicine. These ginsenosides, which belong to the class of triterpene saponins, have been reported to possess various biological and pharmacological activities such as antiaging, antiinflammation and antioxidation in central nerve system, cardiovascular system and immune system. Previous studies have shown that the pharmacological actions of ginsenosides contributed to their metabolites through biotransformation by human intestinal bacteria. Compound K (CK; Figure 1) is one of the main pharmacologically active metabolites of protopanaxadiol ginsenosides (e.g., Rb1, Rb2 and Rc) and it was reported that, it was accumulated in the liver after absorption from the GI tract to the blood, and some CK was transformed into fatty acid esters which may be the active components of ginsenosides in the body. Many studies revealed that most of the ginsenosides are poorly absorbed along the human intestinal tract due to a high polarity. Odani et al. have reported that the amount of ginsenoside Rg1 absorbed via oral administration was within the range of 1.9−20.0% of the dosage in animal models. Other ginsenosides such as Rb1 and Rb2 were also slowly absorbed through digestive tract, and the oral bioavailabilities in rats were relatively low. The biological activities of drugs depend not only on their chemical structures, but also on their degree of lipophilic and membrane permeation, which could enhance their transport across the cell membrane or influence their interaction with proteins and enzymes. Recently, considerable attention has been paid to the development of ester prodrugs, which is a widely used approach to improving overall lipophicity, membrane permehave been reported to enhance its lipophilicity, bioavailability and in vivo activity. However, to date, limited information is available concerning the mechanisms of oral absorption for CK and production of ester prodrugs to enhance the oral absorption of ginsenoside CK. To increase the oral absorption of CK, esterification provides a route to obtain more lipophilic derivatives. In addition, it has been reported that acylation of cholestane glycoside increased the antitumor potency. Several acylated triterpenoid saponins isolated from the roots of Solidago virgaurea subsp. virgaurea in a low concentration also activated the metabolism of endothelial cells, which enhanced the permeability of the blood vessel walls for better adsorption of the saponins into tissues. We thus speculated that the novel ester prodrugs of CK, butyl and octyl esters (CK-B and CK-O; Figure 1), which are more lipophilic than parent compound, may have an excellent oral bioavailability. The objective of this study was to determine the transepithelial transport and absorption mechanisms of CK and its ester derivatives in the Caco-2 system. Caco-2 cell monolayers have been generally accepted as an in vitro model for prediction of drug absorption across human intestine and for mechanistic studies of intestinal drug transport since these cells show morphological and functional similarities to human small intestinal epithelial cells. In this study, both ester derivatives were utilized for transepithelial transport and absorption assays in Caco-2 monolayers compared with CK to investigate whether esterification could enhance the membrane permeability of high hydrophilic compound, thus improving the intestinal absorption of drug.

Our results are consistent with the previous reports which showed that CK had a low oral bioavailability (approximately 5%) in rats. However, as shown in our results, the low oral bioavailability of CK can be improved by esterification of CK into CK-B and CK-O.

Octyl ester ofginsenoside compound K as novel anti‐hepatoma compound: Synthesis and evaluation on murine H22 cells in vitro and in vivo

Ginsenoside compound K (M1) is the active form of major ginsenosides deglycosylated by intestinal bacteria after oral administration. However, M1 was reported to selectively accumulate in liver and transform to fatty acid esters. Ester of M1 was not excreted by bile as M1 was, which means it was accumulated in the liver longer than M1. This study reported a synthetic method of M1‐O, a mono‐octyl ester of M1, and evaluated the anticancer property against murine H22 cell both in vitro and in vivo. As a result, both M1 and M1‐O showed a dose‐dependent manner in cytotoxicity assay in vitro. At lower dose of 12.5 μm, M1‐O showed moderate detoxification. Instead, M1‐O exhibited significantly higher inhibition in H22‐bearing mice than M1. M1‐O induced murine H22 tumor cellular apoptosis in caspase‐dependent pathway given that pan‐caspase inhibitor, Z‐VAD‐FMK, could reverse the cytotoxicity induced by M1‐O. Additionally, pro‐ and anti‐apoptosis proteins, Bcl‐2 and Bax, altered and consequently induced increased expression of cleaved caspase‐3. Interestingly, cyclophosphamide regimen significantly induced atrophy of spleen and thymus, main immune organs, while M1‐O treatment greatly alleviated this atrophy. Collectively, we propose M1‐O as a candidate for live cancer treatment.

M1-O exerted strong anti-tumor activity by suppression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and increase of pro-apoptotic protein Bax

Note: M1-O is the same think as CK-O

Natural product as a source of prodrug

Ginsenosides are isolated from the Panax quinquefolius. This is a natural product triterpene saponins and steroid glycosides. Ginsenosides are the members of a dammarane family, which consists of a 4-ring and steroid-like structure. All ginsenosides have two or three hydroxyl groups in the carbon 3 and 20. Ginsenosides are converted into active metabolites like 20(S)- protopanaxadiol Rb1-Rb3, Rc, Rd, Rg3, Rh2, Rs1 (2) with help of human gut bacteria -glycosidase Eubacterium sp. A-44. Ginsenosides produced a variety of pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer and vasorelaxation.                                                                                                                                                                       

                      

Emerging signals modulating potential of ginseng and its active compounds focusing on neurodegenerative diseases

  

Conclusion

The ginseng compound K ester CK-O is likely to be a potent drug in humans with a range of effects, some of which do relate to autism and epilepsy.

Very often people with epilepsy are excluded from autism clinical trials.  Here is one drug where you might want to start with that very group.

CK-O will have multiple effects, meaning it is not selective, so while it may have some very good effects, there may be some negative ones.

You might think the CK-O molecule would be a good basis on which to build a modern patentable drug; a K-O (knock-out) for someone.

Natural substances with health benefits like phytoestrogens (soy etc), curcumin/turmeric, ginseng and even bee propolis either need to be eaten in large quantities or the active substance identified and synthesized. The people with neurofibromatosis (NF-1, NF-2) consuming large amounts of expensive New Zealand propolis as a PAK1 inhibitor might as well save money and buy the active ingredient itself another ester, this time caffeic acid phenethyl ester, and gives the bees a rest.

Azosemide in Autism – ça marche aussi / it works too

Rathaus/City Hall in Hanover, Germany      
Attribution: Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de

The short version of this post is that the old German diuretic Azosemide delivers the same autism benefit as the popular diuretic Bumetanide, but it has a different profile of diuresis.  Azosemide may indeed be more potent at blocking NKCC1 in the brain, but this needs to be investigated/confirmed.  For some people Azosemide will be a better choice than Bumetanide.

The bulk of today’s post is really likely to be of interest only to bumetanide users and the French and German bumetanide researchers.

I did suggest recently when I published version 5 of Monty’s PolyPill, that it is getting close to the final version.  Some of the potential remaining elements have already been written about in this blog, but I have not finished evaluating them.  Azosemide falls into this category.

One theme within this blog has been to increase the “autism effect” of Bumetanide, which was the first pharmaceutical intervention going back to 2012.  I did look at modifying how the body excretes Bumetanide to increase its plasma concentration using an OAT3 inhibitor, but that is little different to just increasing the dose. There are other ways to lower chloride levels within neurons than blocking NKCC1, you can target the AE3 exchanger for example with another diuretic called Diamox, or you can just substitute bromide ions for chloride ions, using potassium bromide. Bromide is used to treat Dravet Syndrome and other hard to treat types of pediatric epilepsy.

Researchers in Germany have developed modified versions (prodrugs) of Bumetanide that better cross the blood brain barrier; one interesting example is called BUM5.  Prodrugs are out of favour because they are hard to control, meaning that they work differently in different people.

The researchers in Hanover, Germany also published data showing that an old German diuretic called Azosemide might be much more potent than bumetanide inside the brain.

This becomes even more interesting because, not-surprisingly, diuretics as drugs are produced based on their diuretic effect.  The diuresis comes from their effect on a transporter called NKCC2, but the autism effect comes from blocking the very similar transporter NKCC1 in the brain. Because Azosemide and indeed Furosemide are 40 times weaker than Bumetanide at blocking NKCC2, the pills are made as Bumetanide 1mg, but Furosemide 40mg. Azosemide is now only used in parts of Asia, where people tend to be smaller and so there are 30mg tablets (the equivalent of Bumetanide 2mg is Azosemide 60mg in smaller adults).

Then comes bio-availability, which is how much of the pill you swallow makes it into your bloodstream. Bumetanide is very well absorbed, but in the case of Azosemide it can be 20%. I was informed that you can increase this 20% by taking it with Ascorbic acid, otherwise known as vitamin C.  

In the test tube, Azosemide is 4 times more potent at blocking NKCC1 than bumetanide at the same dose.

In the test tube 60 mg of Azosemide should be very much more potent than 2mg of Bumetanide at blocking the NKCC1 transporter found in the brain.

But then we do have the blood brain barrier that seems to block 99% of bumetanide form getting through. Azosemide will also struggle to cross the blood brain barrier (BBB). The Germans think that Bumetanide is much more acidic than Azosemide and that suggests that Azosemide might be more able to cross the BBB; however the French disagree.

The conclusion of all that is to take Azosemide with orange juice.

French Researchers

You might think the French researchers at Neurochloré would have trialed Azosemide before spending millions of dollars/euros approving Bumetanide for autism.  Their patent covers all these drugs, but they would find monetizing their idea much easier with Azosemide. Bumetanide is a cheap generic drug widely available across the world. Azosemide is currently only available in some parts of Asia.

I did ask the researchers a while back if anyone had tried Azosemide for autism. The answer was no.

I think the main plan all along was to develop a more potent drug than bumetanide, without diuresis, that could be used in many neurological disorders that feature disturbed chloride levels.  The licensing of Bumetanide for autism is just an intermediate step.

There are many considerations in developing the new drug, not least what exactly is bumetanide’s mode of action. Is it the central effect of the tiny 1% that can cross the blood brain barrier? Or is it a peripheral effect?

While the German researchers think Azosemide can cross the blood brain barrier better than Bumetanide, the French do not think so.

The fact that Azosemide does have the same “autism effect” as bumetanide may help understand how it works and then this would help develop the new tailor-made drug. This is why they were interested by the news in today’s post.

I did suggest making an experiment of bumetanide and Azosemide in healthy adults to measure how much is present in spinal fluid, this is a proxy for how much is inside the brain.

In the meantime bumetanide-responders with autism have the choice of two drugs, with quite different patterns of diuresis. So for one person Bumetanide might be best, in another Azosemide and in some a combination of both drugs might be best.

Bumetanide is short-acting and causes diuresis in the first 30-90 minutes, in most people it is substantial diuresis while in some people it is minimal. Azosemide is a long-acting diuretic and the peak effect is 3 to 5 hours after taking the drug. It seems that in some people the diuretic effect is very mild and it is always delayed.

When I took Azosemide to check the effect, I did not notice any diuretic effect.  I would not have known it was a diuretic.

The higher the dose of Bumetanide/Azosemide the greater the autism benefit will be, depending on how elevated the initial chloride level was. The limiting factor is diuresis and at extreme levels ototoxicity. Very high doses of loop diuretics can damage your ears – ototoxicity.

In immature neurons you have almost exclusively NKCC1 (green above) whereas in adult neurons you have almost exclusively KCC2 (orange above), but you can be at any point in between. Also this point is not fixed in one person; external factors can shift it in either direction.

As a result the effective dose of Bumetanide/Azosemide will vary from person to person AND vary over time.

The severity of diuresis limits the dosage. This is why Azosemide clearly has a role to play at least for some people.

Here is the German paper that prompted the interest in Azosemide:-

Azosemide is more potent than bumetanide andvarious other loop diuretics to inhibit the sodium-potassium-chloride-cotransporterhuman variants hNKCC1A and hNKCC1B

Azosemide was the most potent NKCC1 inhibitor (IC₅₀s 0.246 µM for hNKCC1A and 0.197 µM for NKCC1B), being about 4-times more potent than bumetanide. 

Azosemide was the most potent inhibitor of hNKCC1, inhibiting both splice variants with about the same efficacy. Azosemide lacks the carboxylic group of the 5-sulfamoylbenzoic acid derivatives (Fig. 1), demonstrating that this carboxylic group is not needed for potent inhibition of NKCC1. Clinically, Azosemide has about the same diuretic potency as furosemide, but both drugs are clearly less potent than bumetanide30, so the high potency of Azosemide to inhibit the hNKCC1 splice variants was unexpected. In contrast to the short-acting diuretic bumetanide, the long-acting Azosemide is not a carboxylic acid, so that its tissue distribution should not be restricted by a high ionization rate. However, it is highly bound to plasma proteins31, which might limit its penetration into the brain. Indeed, in a study in which the tissue distribution of Azosemide was determined 30 min following i.v. administration of 20 mg/kg in rats, brain levels were below detection limits (0.05 µg/g32).

In conclusion, the main findings of the present study on structure-activity analyses of 10 chemically diverse diuretics are that (1) none of the examined compounds were significantly more effective to inhibit NKCC1B than NKCC1A, and (2) Azosemide was more potent than any other diuretic, including bumetanide, to inhibit the two NKCC1 variants. The latter finding is particularly interesting because, in contrast to bumetanide, which is a relatively strong acid (pKa = 3.6), Azosemide is not acidic (pKa = 7.38), which should avour its tissue distribution by passive diffusion. Lipophilicity (logP) of the two drugs is in the same range (2.38 for Azosemide vs. 2.7 for bumetanide). Furthermore, Azosemide has a longer duration of action than bumetanide, which results in superior clinical efficacy26 and may be an important advantage for treatment of brain diseases with abnormal cellular chloride homeostasis.

Bumetanide in use

In 2012 I started bumetanide use at 1mg once a day and after 10 day saw a positive effect. Later I tried 0.5mg twice a day and felt the effect was much reduced.  This is not really a surprise and is highly relevant.

In the later years I increased the dose to 2mg once a day initially to combat the summertime loss of effect due to allergy (inflammation) shifting the balance of NKKC1/KCC2 further towards NKCC1.

Adding a second daily dose of 1mg produced more diuresis but no noticeable benefit. I did not try a second daily dose of 2mg because I did not want yet more diuresis.

Azosemide in use

Azosemide is a so-called long acting diuretic, whereas as Bumetanide is short acting. In practise this means there is no immediate diuresis soon after taking the drug, the diuresis comes later and can be much less. The diuretic response seems to vary widely between people.

The milder diuretic effect is attractive for the second daily dose.

After 6 years the early morning diuresis has become a normal process, but once a day is really enough. So my initial trial was Azosemide in the afternoon, while retaining bumetanide in the morning.

After a week or so there were clear signs that benefits initially enjoyed from Bumetanide have been further extended.  This is exactly as the German research suggested might occur.

After a few weeks of 2mg Bumetanide at 7am and 60mg Azosemide at 4pm I moved on to Azosemide 60mg twice a day.

Is Azosemide 60 mg more potent than Bumetanide 2mg?  It is early days, but quite possibly it is.

Bumetanide is very cheap and we have got used to the early morning diuresis, so I am less bothered with the 7am drug.

After a few years drinking a lot of water, to compensate for the diuresis of bumetanide, has become a habit. So switching from Bumetanide to Azosemide does not stop diuresis, just the urgency.

In future-users going straight to Azosemide might be a good choice.

In our case it means that a potent second daily dose is a very practical option.

Anecdotal changes include:-

Very appropriate use of bad language while driving. We live in a country with some aggressive drivers and Monty hears many people’s verbal responses to this.  Now Monty makes the comments for us.  Everyone noticed and big brother was particularly impressed.

“Car’s coming!” while extracting my car from being boxed in by three other cars in a car park, Monty noticed another car coming towards us. For the first time ever Monty has given me a loud verbal warning of danger.  He has since repeated this.  I have long wondered how a person with severe autism can ever safely drive a car, because they lack situational awareness. Many people with severe autism never learn to safely cross a road on foot.

Monty improved use of his second language. He is declining nouns and translating out loud captions and phrases he sees in cartoons.

One area I hoped would improve was at the dentist. Back in March, before the summer allergy season, we had excellent behaviour at the dentist. This gradually changed and the dentist noted this.  We are slowing repairing 2 teeth without removing the nerves and this requires visits every 7 weeks to gradually remove the decay and grow a new layer of dentine above the nerve. After Azosemide the recent anxiety disappeared and Monty’s behaviour at the dentist went back to being very cheerful and entirely cooperative.  

How to access Azosemide tablets

Thanks to our doctor reader Rene, we know that you can order Japanese drugs in specialist “international pharmacies” in Germany with a valid prescription from any European country.

So all you need is a prescription and the money.

Azosemide is available in Japan as a branded product DIART and as a cheaper generic sold as Azosemide.

The price does vary on which pharmacy you approach in Germany, one pharmacy offers these prices:-

100 Tablets   ~ 74€
           500 Tablets   ~ 286€
         1000 Tablets  ~ 524€

This is much more expensive than generic Bumetanide, but less expensive than many supplements people are buying.

If you live in North America you would have to find a different method, or take a trip to Germany.

Conclusion

Azosemide is still “under investigation”, but the prospects look good.

As with Bumetanide, it was approved as a drug a few decades ago and so there is a great deal of safety information. It is not an experimental drug; we are just looking at repurposing it for autism and other neurological conditions with elevated chloride.

Azosemide for autism is a good example of parent cooperation and self-help. Several parents have helped in this step forward for autism treatment.

More work has to be done to see how others respond and what the most effective dosage is.

I suspect that the optimal treatment will be twice a day and the lack of substantial diuresis in most people makes it more practical than Bumetanide twice a day.  Combining Bumetanide, a short acting diuretic, with Azosemide, a long acting diuretic, is also an option to explore.

The potential risk factors are the same as Bumetanide, disturbed electrolytes, dehydration and at very high doses ototoxicity. Ototoxicity is damage to your ear that can be caused by drugs that include diuretics at very large doses.

Azosemide would appear to have milder side effects than Bumetanide.