R-Roscovitine Hope for asthma allergy and possibly adverse drug reactions

Let's hope the folks in Edinburgh are right about this drug. I sure would like a way to stop having allergic attacks and adverse reactions to drugs. I am fighting a scary infection that could be killed if I could just tolerate sulfa. They cause terrible itching but I have taken one a few minutes ago and am letting it dissolve in my mouth to see if I can slowly absorb it without a big itchy reaction. It really knocks down the bacteria but damn does it make me itch. I can feel the itching already in my legs. Tiny intense pinpricks of itching. I hope I do not go into anaphylaxis again. I hate that tunnel of death and I hate hospitals.

You lose all control in the hospital. If you are one of the one percent club that has big adverse reactions it seems to really annoy the doctors. They seem to get angry and outraged when you tell them about your problems with drugs. It is so darn inconvenient for their protocols. Of course the other problem is that there are so few drugs that really kill bacteria any more. So I can understand their frustration.

I am told I have a 'rare' gram positive bacteria. How wonderful! Now I can be host to an interesting zoo animal that will excite the doctors. They really liked seeing my whole body hives when I was in the hospital before. They called me a 'textbook' example. Come see the man with the hives. He is an interesting specimen. We usually only see this in textbooks. I felt like a zoo animal. Now I have a zoo animal living inside me.

Before my last reactions with Vantin a cephalosporin I told the doctor that it was making me itch a lot. He said well what's wrong with putting up with a little itching? Which was fine with me except the intense itching which I felt for a few hours after a dose of the drug, suddenly became whole body hives. Actually it was not fine the intense itching was pretty darn bad and I did not like him belittling me and implying that I was a coward. I really hate doctors.

I thought the hives would go away after a few hours like the intense itching had. But no, once you convert to whole body hives, the symptoms last for weeks. I remember itching so bad that I had to sit on my hands so I did not tear at my skin. Unbelievable torture. How could a good god crate such misery in the world?

I guess I stopped being religious when my talented son at age twenty was struck down with a series of autoimmune diseases that left him unable to walk without a cane, use his hands to even control a computer mouse, froze his neck and even his ribs which made it hard for him to breathe. Twice we sat by his bedside all night expecting him to die. A brilliant boy who had so many friends. Everybody liked Paul. Everybody. He was on the verge of a wonderful life. All taken away.

The itching is becoming worse. I understand that sulfa drugs can give you Stevens Johnson Syndrome which causes your skin to fall off. Then you die.

Here is the latest allergy cure possibility.


University of Edinburgh

Potential cancer drug may offer new hope for asthma patients


A drug being tested to treat cancer could also help patients suffering from asthma, research has suggested.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh found that the drug – R-Roscovitine – helps to kill certain immune cells which can exacerbate symptoms associated with asthma.

The findings could lead to an alternative way to treat asthma in patients who are resistant to steroids, which are commonly used in asthma treatments.

Researchers studied the effect that the drug had on immune cells known as eosinophils

Eosinophils, found in the lungs and airways, help the body fight off parasitic infection. However, too many uncontrolled eosinophils can damage other cells that line the lung, contributing to inflammatory conditions such as asthma.

Researchers found that use of the drug caused the eosinophil cells to undergo a form of cell death known as apoptosis, a natural process where unwanted cells are removed from the body.

Professor Adriano Rossi, of the Centre for Inflammation Research at the University of Edinburgh who directed the study, said: "Steroids are commonly used to treat asthma but can have unwanted side-effects, while some asthma patients are also resistant to steroid treatment. It may well be that use of a drug, such as R-Roscovitine, or one that works in a similar same way, could offer an alternative to steroids, or be used in conjunction with steroid treatment for asthma patients."


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The research has been published in the journal FEBS Letters.