Spinal cord and brain concentrations of riluzole after oral and intrathecal administration: A potential new treatment route for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

ABSTRACT: Riluzole is the only treatment known to improve survival in patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). However, oral riluzole efficacy is modest at best, further it is known to have large inter-individual variability of serum concentration and clearance, is formulated as an oral drug in a patient population plagued with dysphagia, and has known systemic side-effects like asthenia (limiting patient compliance) and elevated liver enzymes. In this context, we postulated that continuous intrathecal (IT) infusion of low doses of riluzole could provide consistent elevations of the drug spinal cord (SC) concentrations at or above those achieved with oral dosing, without increasing the risk for adverse events associated with systemic drug exposure or off-target side effects in the brain. W

SUBMITTER: Keifer OP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10443869 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature