Ambroxol - The Common Cough Syrup

[Gaby]

If you don't have anything, you can always try sodium bicarbonate, one level teaspoon, on an empty stomach. The children can get 3/4ths of a teaspoon. It should help, once to three times per day for a few days

 

[Persej]

I was reading about the food sources of Vitamin K, and one good source seems to be goose fat and liver. So I searched a little about goose fat and I found that it is famous for lung problems. Here is one interesting comment below the article about goose fat:

At the time of corona, I had a fever and inflammation of both lungs for 13 days. My wife brought home-made goose fat from a colleague, and on my own initiative, I melted a spoonful in the afternoon and drank it. After 30 minutes I literally stopped coughing and immediately felt relief. I am convinced that goose fat saved me.

The wife's uncle was on oxygen for 25 days and everyone thought he was near the end of his life. I sent him a small package of fat and the next day he called me and literally said: My savior, thank you.

Kako guščija mast pomaže u lečenju plućnih bolesti

Guščija mast je stari narodni lek, koji se u srpskoj narodnoj medicini najviše koristio za lečenje plućnih bolesti

eklinika.telegraf.rs

 

[zak]

This caught my eye because it's not the first time ambroxol appears to be quite the ideal medicine to detox cells.

A Common Cough Syrup Drug Just Passed Another Trial as Parkinson's Treatment

A drug first discovered over 50 years ago and long used as a medicine for coughs and respiratory illnesses appears to show promise in treating a very different kind of sickness: Parkinson's disease.

www.sciencealert.com

PETER DOCKRILL
17 FEB 2020

A drug first discovered over 50 years ago and long used as a medicine for coughs and respiratory illnesses appears to show promise in treating a very different kind of sickness: Parkinson's disease.

Ambroxol, an active ingredient in cough mixtures since the 1970s, has been investigated in recent years for its apparent potential to halt the progression of Parkinson's, and already this year, the drug has passed two important milestones that may bring us closer to a much-hoped-for treatment.

Last month, a multi-institutional team of researchers led by University College London (UCL) reported the results of a small Phase II clinical trial suggesting that ambroxol was safe and well-tolerated in human patients with Parkinson's disease, while hinting at possible neuroprotective effects that need to be examined further in subsequent trials.

Based on these outcomes, last week funding was announced to continue the next steps in evaluating ambroxol in a much larger cohort of people with Parkinson's, while also seeking to learn more about how individual patient genotypes may contribute to the disease.

"The ambroxol study is important because there are no treatments available for Parkinson's that slow, stop, or reverse [it]" says Simon Stott, deputy director of research at The Cure Parkinson's Trust, one of the bodies funding the research program.

"All of the current medications only deal with the symptoms of the condition – they do nothing to delay the progression of Parkinson's."

In the latest open-label trial, 17 patients with the disease were monitored while taking a daily dose of ambroxol over a six-month period.

In addition to checking that the therapy was safe at the dosage administered, the researchers also wanted to see whether ambroxol would cross the blood-brain barrier, and how the therapy might play out differently between patients either with or without particular mutations in a gene called GBA1 (the glucocerebrosidase gene).

Such GBA1 mutations are considered the most important genetic risk factor for Parkinson's, with the gene variant predisposing people to a greater risk of developing the disease at a younger age, and with a more rapid onset of symptoms.

Scientists think this happens because the mutation inhibits the natural release of glucocerebrosidase proteins (called GCase), which perform a clean-up process in the brain, preventing the harmful build-up of another kind of protein called alpha-synuclein, viewed as a key culprit in the cognitive dysfunction we see in Parkinson's case.

"By increasing levels of GCase, ambroxol allows cells to remove waste, which would ideally keep cells healthier for longer and could slow down the progression of Parkinson's," says lead researcher and neurologist Tony Schapira from UCL.
Previous experiments with human cells and animal models suggests ambroxol can help increase GCase proteins while reducing alpha-synuclein levels, which is why the venerable cough syrup drug carries much hope as a potential treatment for Parkinson's disease.

We're not quite there yet, as the results from this new trial will need to be replicated in much larger tests, but the signs, the researchers say, are promising so far.

"This study provides us with the 'proof of concept' that we can raise levels of GCase in humans with ambroxol, and that the drug is safe and well tolerated in people with Parkinson's," says Stott.

"If further study shows ambroxol can improve the health and function of cells, it may result in slower disease progression for people with Parkinson's."

In the study, the experiment showed the drug successfully penetrated the blood-brain barrier, and increased GCase protein levels in participants' cerebrospinal fluid by about 35 percent, while being safe and well-tolerated by the patients taking the therapy, with no adverse effects reported.

The researchers did not find a difference between the responses of patients who do have the GBA1 mutation, and those who do not - another aspect of their results that will require further investigation.

Additionally, assessments of the patients' capacity for physical movement on the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) saw the participants' movement scores slightly improve by a number of points on average, suggesting that the drug might have positive effects on motor control in Parkinson's disease patients.

That's a big 'might' though, as the researchers emphasise testing MDS-UPDRS scores was only one of many secondary outcomes in this small trial, which did not involve placebos being given to a control group.

Because of such limitations, the team says further testing is needed before drawing firmer conclusions about the effects of the drug on movement and other Parkinson's symptoms.

"However, the changes support the clinical impression that no substantial deleterious effect of ambroxol was observed among participants taking ambroxol, including any adverse effect on the motor features of their Parkinson's disease," the authors note.

With the newly announced funding to support the next stage of research into ambroxol, it will assist the drug to move forward into phase III trials. The first step, to be led by Schapira, will be to determine the optimal dose of the drug.

The findings are reported in JAMA Neurology, and you can find out more about the ambroxol trials here and here.

Editor's note (19 Feb 2020): A previous version of this article contained some erroneous information about the next stages of research; this has since been amended.

This next article discusses the therapeutic potential of ambroxol in neurodegenerative diseases, specifically amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Charcot disease:

Ambroxol Hydrochloride Improves Motor Functions and Extends Survival in a Mouse Model of Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis​

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a multifactorial and fatal neurodegenerative disease. Growing evidence connects sphingolipid metabolism to the pathophysiology of ALS. In particular, levels of ceramides, glucosylceramides, and gangliosides are dysregulated in the central nervous system and at the neuromuscular junctions of both animal models and patients. Glucosylceramide is the main precursor of complex glycosphingolipids that is degraded by lysosomal (GBA1) or non-lysosomal (GBA2) glucocerebrosidase. Here, we report that GBA2, but not GBA1, activity is markedly increased in the spinal cord, of SOD1G86R mice, an animal model of familial ALS, even before disease onset. We therefore investigated the effects of ambroxol hydrochloride, a known GBA2 inhibitor, in SOD1G86R mice. A presymptomatic administration of ambroxol hydrochloride, in the drinking water, delayed disease onset, protecting neuromuscular junctions, and the number of functional spinal motor neurons. When administered at disease onset, ambroxol hydrochloride delayed motor function decline, protected neuromuscular junctions, and extended overall survival of the SOD1G86R mice. In addition, ambroxol hydrochloride improved motor recovery and muscle re-innervation after transient sciatic nerve injury in non-transgenic mice and promoted axonal elongation in an in vitro model of motor unit. Our study suggests that ambroxol hydrochloride promotes and protects motor units and improves axonal plasticity, and that this generic compound is a promising drug candidate for ALS

Ambroxol Hydrochloride Improves Motor Functions and Extends Survival in a Mouse Model of Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

In french:
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02903978/document

 

[gottathink]

Muc

What a coincidence! There's a very common 'mucolytic'? syrup called "Mucosolvan" here in Italy, €10 or even less, usually taken during or after any sign of cold/flu related symptoms. Had a very bad flu in between January and February and it was like having spikes in my temples 24/24, no sore throat, but a lot of mucus in it... gash!

Mucosolvan is a registered trademark name for Ambroxyl.

In neonates…The above findings had shown that Mucosolvan® improved lung function and exhibited good inflammatory response. In addition, we found that Mucosolvan® inhibited cell apoptosis and NF-κB pathway activation and effectively improved pulmonary functions.

Effects and mechanisms of ambroxol inhalation (Mucosolvan®) in the treatment of neonatal pneumonia - PubMed

Neonatal pneumonia is the leading cause of mortality in children aged <5 years. Ambroxol (Mucosolvan®) is a mucolytic and secretolytic drug and belongs to the group of expectorants with anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects. The purpose of the present study was to observe the effects and m …

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Alix]

Thank you all and especially to you Gaby!

I‘m currently having a series of caugh that I cannot stop. It’s awful and exhausting.
I feel like something is in my throat and can’t get it out. Already half an hour and I hope it will get better.

This bug is really awful …

Here's to hoping you feel better soon, @Mari .