Talk about an unlikely hero.
Tapeworms are often the scourge of the healthcare world, from their misguided use to achieve a slim waistline to inflicting terrible neurological symptoms like headaches, confusion, seizures and death.
Drugs used for the tiny larvae could alleviate a disease with debilitating pain and no cure that experts consider a clinical failure for millions of women.
Although one in ten women of childbearing age worldwide suffer, Dr. Sheeva Talebian, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist, previously told the Post that endometriosis symptoms often go unreported and misdiagnosed.
A new study, however, has found a promising treatment for this progressive inflammatory disease that could directly target painful lesions growing outside the uterus.
Published in August in the journal Advanced Healthcare Material, researchers outfitted the FDA-approved anti-worm drug niclosamide with nanotechnology armor for use in mice.
The drug reduced inflammation and slowed or prevented the spread of lesions – a boon for the disease whose existing treatments only relieve symptoms, albeit with side effects.
Although there is no cure for endometriosis, current remedies like hormonal medications block the menstrual cycle to limit the growth of lesions, while surgical procedures can remove the lesions themselves or parts of the reproductive system to manage pain.
However, medications can often cause side effects, such as nausea and mood swings. Meanwhile, lesions may continue to grow after surgery.
These adverse effects led to the need for an additional option.
Previous research in mice discovered a group of unwanted immune cells specific to tissues in endometrial lesions that stimulated growth and turbocharged painful inflammation.
Researchers also discovered a unique chemical marker in cells called the folate receptor, which made it a potential target for drugs, particularly niclosamide.
Clinicians had already tested whether the drug could be used for conditions other than tapeworm infections, making it a potential treatment for endometriosis.
Working with nanomedicine specialists, the team worked to restructure niclosamide so that it could better dissolve in the blood by linking it to a molecule called a dendrimer.
A folate receptor was also added so that the modified drug targets unwanted immune cells in endometrial lesion tissue.
The final drug is similar to that of a person traveling in a carpool, according to Anjali Sharma, a nanomedicine specialist at the University of Michigan who worked with the research team to develop the drug.
“Basically, the dendrimer is like the Uber, the folate is like the GPS, and the drug is like the passenger,” Sharma told Live Science.
“The drug is fixed in such a way that when it is in systemic circulation, nothing happens until it enters the diseased cells,” Sharma said.
Once there, it is slowly released inside the cell over a period of two weeks.
In mouse models, a single injection of the drug directly targeted affected endometrial tissue, significantly reducing pain and slowing, or even completely stopping, the growth of new lesions.
However, much more needs to be done to ensure the drug can be used on humans, namely the fact that mice do not menstruate and do not develop endometriosis.
Researchers believe, however, that the drug still holds enormous promise.
“There is a lot of potential in repurposing drugs that have been tested in clinical trials to see if they would be effective in treating endometriosis,” Ioannis Simitsidellis, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centers for Reproductive Health and Inflammation Research at the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science.
Even at such an early stage in the process, researchers received hundreds of emails asking to participate in future trials.
The next steps would be to test the drug in larger samples and then, if the results are promising, to proceed to human clinical trials.
Gn Health
