Editor’s notice: If you or a cherished one has ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome), you know only too properly the shortage of effective ME/CFS treatment alternatives available. You’re also very aware of the truth that there are presently no pills permitted via the FDA for the treatment of ME/CFS. Doctors are limited to treating ME/CFS signs with off-label prescription medicinal drugs.
Simmaron Research is main the fee for trading that situation. They are presently running to raise the price range for an important look that might pave the way to getting FDA acclaim for as a minimum one drug for ME/CFS. Up till now, the drug that has come the closest to gaining that distinction is Ampligen®. Unfortunately, the FDA Ampligen story, many years in the making, has been a rollercoaster of wish followed by heartbreak for the ME/CFS network. With this observation, hope is growing as Ampligen, which has been unavailable for the past yr, could be an essential part of the study.
Help Simmaron AMPlify Therapies for M.E.!
Simmaron is fundraising for its one-of-a-type examine to investigate data from ME/CFS patients who reply to treatments like Ampligen®, IVIG, and cidofovir. The aim of the take a look at is to build a systematic roadmap for purchasing a primary medicinal drug accredited using the FDA for our disease.
Which patient subset responds to immune-primarily based remedies, like Ampligen and IVIG?
Or antiviral treatments like cidofovir?
Which subset responds to saline or amino acid infusions?
What measures show reaction?
These cures are presently in use at Sierra Internal Medicine in Incline Village underneath individualized remedy plans by Dr. Daniel Peterson, and Simmaron’s position is to evaluate the outcomes of three exclusive remedy organizations in a potential analysis that can give us clues to measuring remedy response vigorously.
Collaborators
Simmaron is participating with Maureen Hanson, Ph.D. of Cornell, who will lead scientific research on affected person samples; the USA Centers for Disease Control, lead statistical analysis; and Sierra Internal Medicine, wherein sufferers receive the treatments.
Fundraising
The finances we boost pay for statistics extraction, evaluation, sample instruction to examine who responds, what markers music development in how patients experience, and what characteristics may be used to refine affected person enrollment in double-blind trials. The funds aren’t covering people’s expenses for the treatment itself.
The examine has a price range of $200,000, and a number of the factors have secured investment from beneficent donors to date. We have a purpose of raising $20,000 for the duration of this fundraising effort!
The Data Study
The Responder Study takes gain of an unfortunate 12 months-lengthy hiatus in the availability of Ampligen, which means that the patients are being tracked from a baseline of not having that treatment for more than a year and the practical decline got here with the hiatus.
The take a look at will include 13 sufferers who resume Ampligen, thirteen who acquire different intravenous remedies, and 13 sufferers who obtain no infusion-based remedies, matched for age and intercourse.
Our research team will music the following measures earlier than, during, and at fifty-two weeks for the distinct treatment arms:
NK mobile (herbal killer mobile) characteristic
Cytokine expression
Multiple symptom surveys
Exercise tolerance take a look at
Cornell-designed research protocols
Gunnar Gottschalk, Simmaron Research Fellow, describes the urgency of this take a look at, “We must post findings that track an individual’s response to remedy to apprehend this affected person population extra completely.”
NIH Presentation
During NIH’s recent workshop for Young ME/CFS Investigators, Gottschalk supplied at the medical enjoy of 25 patients who dealt with Ampligen from 2011 to 2017 at Sierra Internal Medicine. The presentation showed “…good-sized and sustained clinical discount in each the bodily and neurological symptoms following Rintatolimod (Ampligen®)”, such as improvement in physical functioning, pain, and strength after 6 months of treatment.
