Nasal delivery of mannitol in rats reached the brain.

[sunvox]

Never, ever try something based on some quack's remarks on the internet. Always talk to a doctor before trying something new.

I found this paper today from a study done on rats in 2011:

Effects of Localized Hydrophilic Mannitol and Hydrophobic Nelfinavir Administration Targeted to Olfactory Epithelium on Brain Distribution

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

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Why is that interesting? Because mannitol is a chemical chaperone proven to help prevent proteins from mis-folding.

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Mannitol could lead to new approach for Parkinson's disease treatment, researchers suggest

news-medical.net/news/20130...

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The mis-folding of proteins is a cause of many inherited ataxias so if a drug stops mis-folding then perhaps it can help stop or slow the disease. This is the basis of the clinical research being done by BioBlast. BioBlast is using a molecule similar to mannitol called trehalose, but they are injecting it into the blood stream via IV. The study above done in rats showed that intranasal delivery of mannitol resulted in a far greater amount reaching the brain than an intravenous delivery.

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Here we have a simple sugar that could potentially help ataxia, and there are a myriad companies that produce nasal delivery devices, and mannitol is already used as a drug delivery vehicle for other illnesses, BUT is anyone studying this for ataxic patients? Ummm . . . can you guess . . . the answer is a big fat "NO" because ain't no money in a sugar substitute. Meanwhile the leading researchers in the US continue to focus on expensive drugs already available from big drug companies.

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I should note that more often then not what works in rats does not work the same in humans, and one point of this study was to show that getting a molecule to the right part of the nasal cavity is crucial to how well the molecule makes it to the brain. In humans that part of the nasal cavity that can pass a molecule directly to the brain is much smaller in proportion to that area in a rat. All that says that even though intranasal delivery of mannitol got plenty of mannitol into the rat's brain, getting the same result in a human is a long shot.

[Zephyr10]

I must say - it would be extremely uplifting if all it takes to slow the disease or rid the symptoms is spraying som saline solution with sugar substitute in the nasal cavity! Or just snorting it lest hope someone does a human trial soon. Like the IV solution. I Wonder how much it would help on someone with an advanced illness too. My father is nearly paralyzed.

[sunvox in reply to Zephyr10]

Talk to your doctor about snorting mannitol if you are interested, but remember I think my research shows that it's not about just one component. It's a combination of elements.