Ceftriaxone To Be Tested In ALS Patients
A study of ceftriaxone , an antibiotic approved by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration to treat certain infections, is now being tested as a
potential treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS) at eight U.S. centers, under the direction of
neurologist Merit Cudkowicz at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
If safety, tolerability and drug metabolism data obtained on 60 subjects early
in the study are favorable, the investigators plan to enroll a total of 600
participants at 40 centers to determine ceftriaxone’s effect on survival.
The study is funded by the National Institutes of Health, but its scientific
basis stems largely from MDA-funded research conducted by neuroscientist
Jeffrey Rothstein at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Laboratory studies have suggested that ceftriaxone improves the removal of the
potentially toxic nervous system chemical glutamate from the vicinity of the
nerve cells that degenerate in ALS.
For more information, see www.mda.org/research/view_ctrial.aspx?id=164,
or contact Fran Murphy at Massachusetts General Hospital at (617) 643-3980 or fmurphy@partners.org.
