Anesthetics and ALS

[sixwings]

MMP-9 is in the news even though it has been known for some time that it is associated with ALS.

MMP-9 controls onset of paralysis in ALS mice. Sections of muscle stained for nerve (green) and muscle (red); nerve-muscle contacts appear yellow. In the SOD1 mouse, muscles that move the eye (left) retain nerve contacts and are active. Fast leg muscles (center) in the same animal lose nerve contacts (red stain only) and become paralyzed. Fast muscles from which MMP-9 has been genetically removed (right) retain their nerve contacts, and therefore muscle function, for nearly 3 months longer. This suggests that inhibiting MMP-9 in human patients with ALS should be beneficial. Credit: The Henderson Lab/Columbia University Medical Center. Source: MMP-9 Tied to Motor Neuron Loss in ALS

And wouldn't you know it? The anesthetics propofol, sevoflurane, desflurane and lidocaine all inhibit MMP-9. The following articles and papers show that anesthetics strongly inhibit MMP-9 expression:

1. Lidocaine Attenuates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced IL-8, MIP-1α and Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Production in Human Monocytes

2. Volatile anesthetics reduce invasion of colorectal cancer cells through down-regulation of matrix metalloproteinase-9

3. Propofol inhibits the adhesion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells by upregulating microRNA-199a and downregulating MMP-9 expression

[sixwings]

I'm angry and distraught by a recent news story about the anticonvulsant drug Retigabine and its potential for treating patients with ALS. Researchers believe that Retigabine's ability to open up voltage-gated potassium channels could be beneficial to ALS patients because these channels cause an inhibitory effect on overly excited motor neurons.

What these researchers conveniently omitted in their report is that Retigabine is an expensive patented drug and that, even though much cheaper and equally powerful potassium channel openers (such as the anesthetic sevoflurane) are available, they are only interested in testing expensive proprietary drugs like Retigabine. In other words, very safe anesthetics like sevoflurane will never be trialed for ALS because there is no money in it for the assholes.

The health and pharmaceutical industry is a criminal cartel and it is as ruthless and money-hungry as the narcotics cartels in Mexico. But nothing lasts forever.

[sixwings]

My wife succumbed to ALS almost a year ago. After much study, I have now concluded that it was a combination of the anesthetics and anti-inflammatory drug (dexamethasone) that she received during back surgery years ago that contributed to a near miraculous recovery that lasted almost a month. I would recommend that anybody with ALS take some kind of anti-inflammatory medicine. Even a non-prescription, over-the-counter drug like Naproxen is likely to help much.

[sixwings]

I have started a new forum, Anti-Inflammatory Drugs.